Style
by realfriends13
Summary: Alexis Monroe has been absent from Bullworth Academy for two whole years. And now she's back. Unfortunately for her, things at Bullworth didn't stay the same just because they had in her memory. Which, kinda royally sucks.
1. Knee Socks and Reunions

A/N - This is a repost of Chapter 3 of Bullworth Nights, which serves as an introduction to three fanfictions I am writing, this one being one of the fics introduced.

* * *

Alexis Monroe wrinkled her nose on Saturday morning as the dorm monitor who she'd become acquainted with her freshman year of the name of Mrs. Peabody called for the girls in the dorm to awaken.

Yesterday, she had returned to Bullworth Academy. The custody battle had been a complete nightmare, and honestly, she was glad to be back. She hated living 'the rich life' with her mother and her creepy boyfriend, Alastair. Yeah, Bullworth was terrible and would be better off named 'Bullshit Academy' so that people knew what they were _really_ getting into, but at least she knew her place here.

And it sure as hell wasn't at a dinner table hearing adults dressed in clothes worth the price of her entire college tuition talk about their achievements in finance.

Of course, she'd have to be significantly more coy with her smoking habits and would have to be 'tucked in nice and tight' by the early hour of 11PM.

It'd be _quite_ the challenge.

She sat up in her bed, the oversized navy blue Bullworth sweatshirt she'd bought in freshman year hanging over her thin body like a dress.

Piper, her Prep roommate who turned out to not be an asshole, had returned sometime in the night. She'd gone off to meet a boy—Alexis could tell, she'd had the same look in her eyes two years ago whenever she'd go off to meet up with the guys—and had probably gotten back when Alexis was sleeping. Currently, Piper was stirring and slowly sitting up in her own bed.

"Up, up, up, Miss Harrington, Miss Monroe!" Mrs. Peabody called pleasantly, poking her head into the dorm.

Last night, after Piper had gone off on her secret date, Alexis had stayed back unpacking. Like Piper had predicted, Mrs. Peabody had started going off on Alexis for the mess, but after Alexis mentioned that Piper was in the dorm as well, Mrs. Peabody had laid off—and seemed to have gained the same respect that she had for Piper, now for Alexis.

Which was lucky, because two years ago the woman couldn't stand the _sight_ of her.

"Is today the orientation assembly?" Piper yawned, looking over at Mrs. Peabody.

"Yes, dear, it is," Mrs. Peabody replied. She turned to Alexis, still smiling politely.

"Miss Monroe, today is the orientation assembly, as was described in your acceptance letter. Uniforms are suggested, but not required."

With that, she continued her rounds down the hall, waking up the other girls in the dorm.

Slipping out of bed, Alexis made her way over to her newly stocked wardrobe. It looked as if a tornado had passed through it on the inside, so she'd have to get to organizing it in the near future.

Yeah, _sure_.

She picked out a bathrobe and a few towels, looking over at Piper.

"D'you have fun last night?"

"Huh?" Piper mumbled, looking startled by the question. She blushed just as she had last night, but nodded just a little.

"I won't tell," Alexis laughed, taking her things and heading to the dorm bathrooms.

Piper looked after her, smiling a little.

* * *

If there was one thing Alexis had forgotten, it was how much of a joke the Bullworth Academy uniforms were, at least for the girls.

She shifted uncomfortably as she made her way down the aisle of the school auditorium, feeling stuffy and constricted in the white button down blouse the girls were forced to wear. Irritated, she hastily undid the cuffs and pushed the sleeves up to her elbow, immediately happy with the result.

She took a seat near the back of the auditorium, maybe she'd see one of the boys around here. None of them sat near the front of the auditorium, Crabblesnitch could see them fooling around from there.

Looking a bit down at the crowd of students seated in the middle section, she took note of the black Mary Janes on the majority of the girls' feet. She remembered wearing them in 9th grade, and felt thankful she'd switched them for a pair of black lowtop Converse instead. The rule about shoes only needing to be 'sensible' and black was all the proof Alexis needed that a God existed. She couldn't deal with wearing Mary Janes all the time.

In a surge of self-consciousness, she pulled her left knee up to her chest and pulled her white knee-length sock down to the ankle, and then did the same to her right sock. She continued on by pulling her skirt up just a bit, enough to keep from looking too promiscuous, but also enough to spare her from looking like a nun.

What was _with_ the Bullworth uniform _anyway_? It was so ridiculous—meanwhile the guys could get away with wearing shorts and swea—

" _Alex_?!"

Alexis jumped to her right, her left hand curling into a fist. "Huh?!"

Beside her stood a medium sized, broad-shouldered boy dressed in a brown leather jacket over a blue school vest, and jeans. His hair was greased back, and he looked like a bad imitation of John Travolta in _Grease_.

"Peanut!"

Peanut stared back at her, his eyes the size of plates as he stared at Alexis. "Scoot over," he said, taking the seat she'd been sitting in previously, turning to face her.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight, constricting bear hug. Straining her neck a little to ease up her breathing, Alexis laughed, hugging him back.

"When the hell did you get back?!" he asked, letting go of her and sitting back in his seat, still facing her. His brown eyes traveled all over her body, taking in how much she'd changed since freshman year.

"Yesterday!" she replied, beaming at him. She was glad to note that he still had the one stubborn stand of hair that refused to be slicked back with the rest of his hair. Something about Peanut's consistency comforted her.

Peanut smiled at her, taking her hand and squeezing it gently as the auditorium lights dimmed and Crabblesnitch walked out onto the stage, but at no moment did he tear his eyes away from Alexis'.

"Man," he said, still smiling, "you haven't changed a bit."

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes and crossed her legs at the ankles. "I hope I have, I finally lost the middle part."

"But I'm happy to see you still respond to 'Peanut'," she added with a sly smile, narrowing her eyes deviously at him.

Peanut eyed her for a moment before reaching over and putting her into a headlock, giving her a noogie, though not as hard as he did to the guys so that he wouldn't hurt her. "You think you're cute, Monr—ow!"

He earned a sharp 'shush' from a nearby prefect who'd been patrolling the aisles as he let go of Alexis, rubbing on his hand. Peanut waited for the prefect to leave before glaring playfully at Alexis.

"Did you really just bite me?" he whispered.

Alexis sniffed, trying to keep from laughing. "You were messin' up my hair."

He rolled his eyes, muttering a quick ' _women_ ' under his breath. Biting people was exactly the type of weird thing Alexis would do, he thought to himself. Still, he was happy to see her. At this point, none of the guys expected she'd ever come back. They'd be psyched when they found out.

"Where are the guys?" Alexis asked, as if reading Peanut's mind. He shrugged in response, looking around and spotting them a couple aisles down over to the left seating section. It seemed as if Lefty and Hal had gotten into some sort of paper-throwing match, and Danvers was watching them fiercely from up on the stage beside Crabblesnitch.

"Over there, goofin' off," Peanut replied, rolling his eyes.

Alexis strained a little to get a look, and smiled when she saw them indeed goofing off. _Man_ she'd missed them. The Manhattan private school crowd had nothing on the Bullworth Academy hotrod club members.

"Where's Johnny?" she asked, looking around, "I don't see him."

Peanut stiffened a little, suddenly hesitant, but Alexis didn't pick up on it. "Uh, he's skippin', but uh, Alex, I don't think—"

"I can't wait till I see him," Alexis interrupted, grinning a little to herself, "I bet he's just gonna flip when he sees me. I got so much to tell you guys, my mom fuckin' sucks and her boyfriend's even worse."

Peanut rubbed the back of his neck, a habit he had when he was becoming increasingly anxious. "Yeah but about Johnny, I really don't think he—"

"Be quiet!"

Peanut jumped at the sound of a prefect's voice—unsurprisingly, the same one with the buzzcut from before. He scowled at him, preparing to flip him off, when the bastard reached for his report slips, icing Peanut with a warning glare. Annoyed, Peanut looked forward.

How the hell was he gonna tell her?


	2. Here's to the Past

A/N - This is a repost of Chapter 6 of Bullworth Nights, which serves as an introduction to three fanfictions I am writing, this one being one of the fics introduced.

* * *

Alexis Monroe let out a disappointed sigh as the morning bell rang, signifying the end of breakfast.

She'd eaten breakfast with the boys, and seeing all of them after missing them all for two years had been better than she'd ever imagined. After all, she never thought she'd see them again, so she supposed she had to thank dear old dad for finally getting his shit together and telling Lilian that Alexis was to live with him. She'd get to thanking him soon enough.

Maybe.

If there was one upside to living with Lily; she was allowed to enjoy the food prepared by the live-in chef, Rodrigue. Of course she'd made the mistake of forgetting that Edna's food was inedible, and her hand still stung from where Peanut had slapped the French toast out of it. She was grateful that he'd saved her, but he could've been more tactile about the whole thing.

Her first class was chemistry, with the hopelessly confused Dr. Watts, and she shared it with Lefty, who had decided that he could make do without the first class of the year and instead swap it for a smoke break.

"You sure you don't wanna come?" Lefty offered for the third time as he and Alexis approached the chemistry room, "I got a fresh pack'a menthols and y'know I don't like sharin' too often."

"It's fine," Alexis replied, giving him a warm smile, "I gotta find Johnny. Can you believe it's been three days and I still haven't seen even a whisper of him?"

Lefty shifted awkwardly, reaching into his jean jacket pocket and pulling out a cigarette from the box of menthols he kept inside. He rolled it around in between his thumb and index finger for a second, clearly tentative.

"Uh yeah," he answered, looking anywhere but at her, "real weird. You sure you don't wanna skip chem, though?"

He crossed his arms and tapped his cigarette against his left upper arm, as if he really wanted her to not go to chemistry, even if she wasn't hanging out with him during the period. "Y'know it's a pretty useless class and all, no matter what Lucky says."

Raising an eyebrow at him, Alexis shook her head. "Nah, Jimbo's been pretty serious about the whole cutting class thing. I'm flattered that you'd be willing to share some of the Lefty Mancini menthol reserve with me, though," she said with a grin.

Hesitant, Lefty accepted with a shaky 'if you insist'. Alexis watched him as he left the school through the side exit before entering the classroom door that was plainly marked 'CHEMISTRY'.

The chem room was as chaotic and unorganized as she had expected. The lab tables were littered with Erlenmeyer flasks and beakers containing bright green, magenta, and crimson chemicals. Students that Alexis—for the most part—recognized bustled all around the room, mindless chatter filling the classroom.

Ahead of her, Dr. Watts stood glaring at an auburn-haired boy as if he were doing something wrong.

"What are you doing in here?!" he demanded, stepping back in astonishment. "Oh, right." He mumbled, as if he'd only just made the connection that he was supposed to be teaching a class, and appearing just a touch irritated. He turned to the class and made a weak attempt at getting their attention, before turning back to Alexis and Buzzcut boy.

"You, Jimmy Hopkins?"

The boy nodded, crossing his arms.

"Ah, yes. You'll be working with…"

The man trailed off, staring down at a sheet of paper on his desk before looking back up to the kid. "Hm, interesting, I've been instructed by Dr. Crabblesnitch to allow you to work by yourself. I suppose you can work at lab table F…"

The boy, Jimmy, sauntered off, and the man turned to Alexis, confusion once again etched onto his face. "And you are…?"

"Alexis?" she replied lamely, a bit annoyed that he wasn't familiar with her. Still, his expression remained muddled.

"Monroe?" She tried again. He couldn't have forgotten of her _that_ easily, right? It was only two years ago that she and Johnny had—

"Oh, yes!" Watts exclaimed, clapping his hands together in realization. "Yes, yes, I remember you. The little miscreant who shattered half of my equipment inventory! I trust that you've become more responsible, young lady?"

Quickly, Alexis nodded her head fiercely. When it came to her being more responsible, she wasn't sure, but she wasn't about to leave the wrong impression on this old hack, even if he'd forget about her before the class ended.

"Well, as I'm sure you remember, I am Dr. Watts, and you will be working with… Mr. Vincent, I believe?" He glanced down at a sheet of paper on his desk before continuing. "Yes, Mr. Vincent, over at lab table E."

Alexis grinned as she followed his gesture… only to find herself staring at an empty table. Sighing, she made her way over to the lab and perched herself onto the wooden stool. Maybe she should've gone with Lefty, she might've had better chances of finding Johnny. Honestly, who even bothered to show up to _chemistry_?

She'd been anxious to see Johnny since she showed up at Bullworth on Friday. There were two years' worth of events to fill him in on, and she really couldn't wait to tell him all about the Manhattan rich kids, and how the Bullworth ones were _nothing_ compared to them.

If he, y'know, _showed up_.

Studying the classroom as the bell rang, Alexis found that the distinction between the academy's cliques were as crystal clear as they'd been two years ago. The prissy prep kids in their lame Aquaberry clothes only associated with fellow snooty jerks, the astronomy club geeks still only associated with fellow social outcasts. High school was so stupid.

"Good morning, class," Dr. Watts said, interrupting Alexis' thoughts, "today we will be exploring the science of distillations. Please follow the instructions on the board, and I would like to remind certain students," he turned to look at a huge, brown-haired boy in a white school shirt that looked an awful lot like Russell Northrop, "to not eat any of the chemicals."

Groaning, Alexis glanced over the instructions, not understanding them. She'd never been good at chem. Chemistry was stupid. And she'd be giving Johnny an earful the minute she saw him.

She was distracted from her personal pity party when the classroom door burst open all of a sudden, and a mid-sized brunette boy in school slacks and a leather jacket entered the classroom. He had a bored expression as he strode up to Dr. Watts' desk, picked up the paper of lab assignments, and began making his way to lab table E.

"Nice of you to join us this morning, Mr. Vincent," Dr. Watts commented sarcastically from Jimmy's lab table.

Alexis' breath stopped as she watched Johnny shrug in response, clearly not caring. He'd grown considerably since the last time she'd seen him—he was no longer a skinny little shrimp, he'd really buffed up in the last two years. He'd finally cut his hair to a decent length, she noted as well.

Nonetheless, she really had, however, been expecting a superior reaction to him seeing her than Johnny just taking a seat on the stool beside her and pulling out his phone.

Alexis sat silently for a moment, unsure of how to proceed. No, it was obvious. He just didn't recognize her was all.

"Hey stranger," she whispered, not being able to help the grin that spread across her lips.

Johnny grunted in response, indifferent.

Looking away for a moment, Alexis giggled into her hand. He really _didn't_ recognize her. Had she really changed _that_ much? Peanut had recognized her, but then again Johnny didn't exactly have the best memory in the world.

"Y'know, I have this best friend who looks a hell of a lot like you," she purred, mixing a flask of water around in her hand, "his name was Johnny, too. He's the type of guy who _wouldn't recognize one of his childhood best friends_."

He looked up at her, and Alexis' smile faded as soon as she saw the serious, irritated expression on his face. Did he _still_ not catch her drift? Jeez, she knew Johnny could be blockheaded at times, but this really took the cake.

"Y'know, I used to have this friend named Alexis," he said, his voice filled with venom, "and then she just ditched me outta nowhere midway through our first year of high school."

Alexis watched in surprise as he slid off his stool, glaring at her as he shoved his phone back into the pocket of his school slacks. "It was real fuckin' shitty of her, and then she didn't even bother callin' or anythin' or lettin' me know what the hell was goin' on."

They stood like that for a moment, Johnny's breathing a bit uneven, the fury in his eyes apparent, while Alexis stared back at him, confused.

"Johnny, I—"

"No," he said, cutting her off, "I don't wanna hear it, Lex. I don't wanna fuckin' hear whatever your excuse is. You ditched us. Nobody had any idea where you'd run off to. So if you want a welcome back party, ask Peanut for it, 'cause I sure as hell ain't gonna throw ya one."

She watched, speechless, as he walked out of the room.

Here's to picking up right where you left off!


	3. Girls are Lame

"When did you plan on telling me that Johnny hates me?"

Peanut Romano turned around slowly at Alexis' voice, a bit nervous. He'd _meant_ to warn Alexis about Johnny's current feelings towards her, but it wasn't exactly easy to stride up to someone you cared about after they just got back and tell them that someone _they_ cared a whole lot about didn't want to be near them. It'd just been easier to not say anything to her, maybe Johnny's mind would change when he saw her.

But, clearly not.

"Hey, Alex," he said nonchalantly, eyeing her. She was all dressed up in her uniform, though of course she'd had to make a few edits to it. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she was pouting at him. She would've looked cute, if she hadn't been glaring daggers at him.

Alexis froze for a moment, staring at him just a little bit slack-jawed. "Don't 'hey Alex' me! Why didn't anyone warn me Johnny can't stand me?"

She ambled up against him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. Feeling sorry for her, Peanut lowered himself a little so she could reach easier, and draped his arms around her waist.

"It's not that he _hates_ you," Peanut countered, tightening his grip on her as he felt her begin to shake with miniscule sobs, "he's just really hurt at you is all."

"I didn't _wanna_ leave," Alexis mumbled, straightening up to face him square on, "th-they just started fightin' over custody and I just got thrown into foster care and then they shipped me off to live with my _mom_ , and—"

"Woah, woah, woah," Peanut interrupted, surprised. "Foster care? Your mom?" She hadn't exactly mentioned anything about a custody battle, and especially not foster care. Sure, she'd mentioned living with her mom and her weird boyfriend, Alastair, yesterday at breakfast, but the boys had just thought she'd just gone off to live with her for two years for kicks.

"None of us knew about that, Alex," he continued, the alarm in his voice apparent. "I didn't know that, Ricky didn't know that, Hal, Lefty, Lucky, Norton, and Vance didn't know that, and I can bet you my jacket that Johnny didn't know that."

Alexis smiled a little, but she didn't look none too happy to Peanut at all. "Well yeah," she sniffed, wiping at her eyes and smudging her eyeliner terribly, "they wouldn't let me call from the police station and then my foster family was way too anti-technology to own anything but a landline, and I wasn't allowed to use it, anyway."

He watched her for a moment, hopelessly wiping at her eyes and ruining her make-up further, and remembered his own home life situation. Peanut had been taken from his drunk of a dad too, once, and placed in a foster family for an entire summer, and he'd hated every minute of it. Sure, Alexis got placed with her mom after a bit, but from what he knew about Lilian Monroe was that she wasn't exactly a piece of cake, either. And Peanut _really_ doubted that Alexis had anybody like himself, Johnny, or any of the guys in the Upper East Side.

Peanut took her hands and placed them by her sides—he really couldn't stand her ruining her make-up like this anymore. Pretty soon, she'd start looking just like she had back in seventh grade when she used to load up on black eye shadow and then he'd start laughing, which, coincidentally, wasn't exactly appropriate for the situation at hand.

"Come on," he said, taking her hand and guiding her to the Boys' Dorm, "we're gonna talk, okay? And then we're gonna find Johnny and get youse guys fixed up. Then we can all have a smoke, on Lefty."

* * *

Johnny Vincent let out a distracted sigh as he puffed on his cigarette while sitting on the hood of one of the old, broken down cars in the auto shop that same night.

So lo and behold, what Peanut had told him on Saturday was true. Lex—no, _Alexis_ —was back. After leaving them all stranded with no idea where she'd gone, and turned out she'd simply run off to live it up with her _mother_ in _Manhattan_ or whatever. So they'd spent two entire years worrying that something had happened to her for nothing.

Yeah, real _fuckin'_ nice.

He shoulda known better than to trust that broad. Sure, she was just the type of girl who'd kiss a guy and make him think happy thoughts about how maybe the two of them could have a future and all, and then just run off like that. Rich kids—they were all the same. And to think she'd gone ahead and made him think she was one of them—all that talk about daddy who didn't give her the time of day and mommy who'd walked out as soon as she could talk—all bullshit. Girls were fuckin' lame.

"Hey, good-lookin',"

Johnny smiled at her familiar voice. Yeah, rich kids sucked, and girls like Alexis Monroe were lame as hell, but Lola was perfection itself. Sure, maybe the guys thought she had a couple flaws—but who didn't? At least Lola embraced them, and even with 'em, she was still beautiful.

Best of all, she didn't kiss him and then disappear for two years.

Two hours, maybe, but not years.

He turned to her, still smiling lovingly at her. It was incredible that she could wear those old leather clothes and still look better than the Victoria's Secret models Peanut was always going on and on about. Lola was breathtaking.

"Hey," he said simply, patting the spot beside him on the car, signaling her to come sit.

Lola strode over to him easily, hips swinging, red lips curved and sculpted into a lacey smile. She took a seat on his lap, cuddling up real close to him—Johnny could swear she could hear his heartbeat. She always knew when he needed comforting. It'd been a stroke of luck that he'd met her after moping around about Alexis for the remainder of 9th grade. She was an angel—his angel.

"What's got you down?" Lola purred, fixing his shirt collar for him and smoothing it out over his leather jacket. Man, she could just read him like a book.

Not that he'd ever seen her crack one open?

"Nothing," he mumbled, but from the look of apprehension on her goddess-like features, he could tell she didn't believe him. He took a deep breath and started again.

"Alexis Monroe is back," he said simply, taking a drag from his cancer stick.

Lola let out a soft breath, 'tsk'ing gently. "Alexis Monroe, huh?" she asked, shaking her head gently. Johnny watched her intently, grateful to have her. She'd seen how torn up he'd been after Alexis called it quits for her and Bullworth. He should've come to Lola as soon as he walked out of that stupid chemistry class.

"I know she hurt you, honey," Lola said, smoothing the hair at the back of his head, "but you've _got_ to move on! Look at you, I bet you haven't slept since you found out."

"And look!" she said, grabbing the almost empty pack of Kools beside him, "You've been smoking more than _Lefty_! All 'cause of one girl? Should I be just a little jealous, Johnny?"

Johnny sighed, almost laughing at the notion that Lola need even be _remotely_ jealous of anyone— _especially_ Alexis. But he knew she was right, he was letting this entire thing eat at him. He _hadn't_ really slept well since Saturday… and pretty soon he'd be out of cigarettes, and would have to bum them from the boys so that he wouldn't go into withdrawal before they opened up the damn front gates again. As usual, Lola was right.

"You're right," he said automatically, smiling at her. "I don't need nobody but you, Lola," he whispered, leaning in to kiss her.

She moved away from him before he could, pulling out her cell phone and checking the I.D., angling it so that Johnny couldn't see. She flipped the phone open and put it to her ear, holding her index finger to Johnny's lips, and then hung up as promptly as she'd picked up.

"I've gotta cut this short, honey," she announced, pecking him quickly on the cheek and standing.

"Lady issues," she called as she walked away, "you wouldn't want to hear about them."

Johnny watched, slack jawed, as Lola walked away—hips swinging, red lips surely curved and sculpted into a lacey smile.

 _Man_ he loved her. She always left him wanting more.

"Johnny! Johnny!"

His head snapped to the source of the noise—and Johnny's brown eyes quickly met the frantic, determined face of Peanut Romano, his now _only_ childhood best friend.

"What's the matter, Peanut?" Johnny asked, trying to shake away the brief feeling of fantasy Lola had left him with as he stood up. "You're lookin' worked up. Did one of those rich kids mess with you?!"

"No, man," Peanut replied, panting slightly as he placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He cursed his 'short' legs under his breath for a moment before looking back up at Johnny.

"I gotta talk to you. It's about Alex."

Johnny stiffened automatically at the sound of Peanut's nickname for Her. Damn it, why did things always go sour when Lola wasn't around?

He sat back down, bringing the cigarette back up to his lips and trying not to bite down on it from anger. "I don't wanna hear about her, Peanut. I've moved on."

Peanut sat back down, pulling out one of his own cigarettes, lighting it, and putting it to his lips so fast that to Johnny it seemed like one fluid movement. One familiar, fluid movement…

So he'd been hanging out with _Her_ , huh?

"'S not what ya think, man," Peanut said, not taking his cigarette out from between his lips, "I know you're mad 'cause she ran off, but she didn't. Her mom made a case against her dad and she got put into foster care for a bit before she got shipped off to Lil—"

" _Larry_ ," Johnny said, his voice solid and stern as it was when he was giving orders, "I don't wanna know nothin' 'bout Alexis Monroe."

"But _Johnny_ ," Peanut insisted, his voice whiny like it was when they were kids, "she's got a pretty good excuse for it. C'mon, you remember what foster care was like for me—"

Johnny let out a sigh, throwing his cigarette to the ground and stomping it out before it touched some spilled gas or somethin'. This place was a death trap. He looked to Peanut, not sure if the pity he was feeling at the moment was for Larry or for himself.

"Look, man," Johnny mumbled, letting out a sigh, "I wasted a lot of time hung up on that chick. You saw me. And I didn't get better 'till Lola came 'round. Lex—she…"

Johnny stopped for a moment, unsure of what to say. There was no way in hell he was about to tell Peanut about that kiss that night in freshman year. He started again.

"Alexis ain't good for me, at least not right now. I'm happy right now. Real happy."

Peanut crossed his arms for a moment, studying his best friend. "Where's Lola, Johnny?"

 _Damn_ him. "Lola's gone off to sleep. And we should, too."

He stared impatiently at Peanut, still sitting there lookin' all grown up and like he knew better.

"Fine. So she didn't run off. I ain't mad. She's forgiven. But I ain't lookin' to restart things." Johnny hissed, irritated. Why did Peanut have to act like such a know-it-all? Peanut didn't know anything.

The shorter greaser finally let out a sigh, shrugging. "Alright, Johnny, fair enough."

"Good. Now let's get to the dorm before someone comes to chew our asses off."


	4. The Key to Friendship is Horror Movies

"Alex… Alex, no…! Alex…! Alex, what are you do—ALEX!"

Alexis snapped out of her daze at the sound of Peanut calling her name in distress. Her view focused back onto the Stallion she was currently working on. She had been unscrewing the plug to change the oil… and was now paying the price as the oil stream began spilling onto her chest and all over her uniform shirt.

"God _damn_ it!" she cursed, snatching the bucket beside her and putting it in the stream's course, sliding out from under the Stallion. She glared at Peanut as he began snickering at her as if it were one big joke.

"Monroe! What the fuck are you doin'?! Clean that shit up!"

Alexis looked over at Neil, who had turned his attention from helping Ricky with something under the hood of an old Regina in order to chide her.

"I'll get it done Neil, chill out," she shouted back, rolling her eyes. Neil didn't give a shit about cleanliness. He was just pissed she'd been gone for two years, and he'd had to change the oil in his car himself since then. It wasn't _her_ fault that nobody else was willing to do it for free.

She looked over at Peanut, who was still laughing at her. "Gimme your jacket," she demanded abruptly, reaching out to him.

Peanut examined her for a moment, unsure if she had really just asked him what she had. "What?"

"Gimme your jacket," Alexis repeated, voice strong. "I can't walk around with my shirt covered in oil, and I can't exactly pull it off either. So unless you wanna see tit-fest up in here, quit bein' a baby and just gimme your jacket."

He narrowed his eyes at her as he pulled off his leather jacket and tossed it to her. She pulled it on and zipped it up tight before pulling her arms into the sleeves and unbuttoning her white blouse, all without taking the jacket off. Peanut didn't speak until she tossed the blouse to the side on the floor and stuck her arms back through the sleeves.

"What's got your mind?" he asked, his voice somewhat concerned, somewhat irritated. She'd been real mean lately, and he had a pretty good idea why. "You never screw up _this_ badly."

Alexis sniffed, looking away from him and crossing her arms. "Nothin'," she replied brusquely, "just thinkin' about shit I can paint in art."

But that wasn't the truth and Peanut knew it. But what was she supposed to do? Tell him she was still hung up over the fact that Johnny wasn't speaking to her? It'd been almost two months. She should be over it by now, moved on. But she wasn't, and she sincerely doubted that she'd ever be. A life without Johnny Vincent was something she'd never thought she'd have to deal with. At least when she was in Manhattan she knew he was still on her side.

Her eyes wandered over to Johnny's workspace, where he leaned over the hood of a classic Cadillac, completely concentrated on the car. She pushed the sleeves of Peanut's leather jacket up to her elbows hastily, suddenly feeling overheated and uncomfortable, as if she didn't have enough space to breathe. She had the slightest desire to leave the auto shop.

She got back on the creeper and slid under the car before cleaning the oil off of the plug and replacing it. She slid over to the oil filter and began unscrewing it, careful this time to place the bucket underneath before she began unscrewing.

"Hand me the filter," she hollered to Peanut, and was greeted with nothing but silence. "Peanut!"

Alexis glared at him as he wheeled her creeper out from under the car and stood over her.

"What are you doin' tonight?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

Rolling her eyes, Alexis tried to wheel back under the car, but of course the creeper did not budge from underneath Peanut's heavy foot.

"I hardly think now's the time to be askin' me out, Romano," she sneered at him, rolling her eyes, but immediately regret it when she saw the hurt look on his face. "I'm sorry," she sighed, sitting up and placing her forearms on her knees, "this Johnny thing's been buggin' me more than I let on."

" _No_ ," Peanut replied, his voice caked in sarcasm. "Look, it's Halloween, and you're no fun anymore. All you do is mope around. I bet you don't even have any Halloween plans," he challenged, crossing his arms.

Alexis sighed, green eyes scanning around the auto shop innocently. "…That's not true…" she lied.

"Look. After the assembly, we're gonna go to the boys' dorm and we're gonna put on some Halloween costumes and we'll go prank some losers, and then we'll get back and watch a movie with the guys."

She let out a breath, a bit out of energy. "I don't wanna do that, Peanut… I'd rather just get some sleep and—"

Peanut shook his head, straightening his back and looking all grown up and like he knew better. Why did he have to act like he knew everything all the time? Peanut didn't know anything.

"It'll do you good," he insisted, his voice steady as if to say it was the end of the discussion.

"Here's the new filter. Get it done before class ends or else Neil's gonna fire both of us."

"You can't get fired from _class._ "

"You know what I mean."

* * *

Peanut and Alexis crashed through the entrance doors to the Boys' Dorm laughing loudly and wrapping their arms around each other's shoulders for support to keep from falling over. They'd just finished up a night of pranking, and the last prank—played on the unfortunate nerdling Thad Carlson—had been glorious.

The pair had dressed up in a couple of old, muddy hockey masks and carried around bats, all of which had been lifted by Lefty from the Jocks' sports clubhouse. Alexis had also carried around the slingshot that Lucky had made for her the previous month. They had then gone everywhere on campus, hiding in trees and shooting at people with the slingshot, or jumping out at them and startling them.

Thad's prank, however, had been the cherry on top. They'd found him wandering around the auto shop—way off his turf—and Alexis had taken the opportunity and climbed up onto the roof to begin shooting at him from overhead.

Thad had quickly caught on, but Alexis had managed to corner him up to a trashcan where Peanut hid, waiting, with his bat. As soon as Thad's back was up to the can, Peanut had jumped out, scaring him, and had then socked the kid right in the gut with the bat. The two hockey mask clad kids had then met up by the trashcan where Thad was hunched over, high-fived, and then ran off before any teacher might stroll by and catch them.

"Poor little dork never saw it comin'," Alexis laughed, wrapping her arm around Peanut's and burying her face into the sleeve of his jacket. "I feel kinda bad," she admitted.

"Don't," Peanut replied, "that twerp hit me with a yardstick last year. He's had this comin' for a while."

Alexis snorted, picturing Peanut getting hit with a yardstick. They made their way into the common room, where she saw that the boys had already retired from the prank war outside to watch whatever movie they'd chosen. She grinned, knowing they had the place to themselves. As Peanut had explained earlier—the Jocks would be on the football field celebrating a birthday, the Preps were in their stupid frat house, the Russell's crew had broken out of campus to hang out at Russell's house in Old Bullworth Vale, and as for the nerds, well… they wouldn't be an issue.

"What movie are we gonna—…" Alexis trailed off as she walked around the familiar, beaten up old sofa only to find herself looking at a familiar face. She turned to ice Peanut with a glare, ready to punch him in the face. He'd _promised_ Johnny wouldn't be here, he said Johnny had _other plans_.

Peanut looked away as soon as he caught sight of the expression on her face, pretending to be busy with the DVD player. "'S called Pet Cemetery," he replied, "it's based off a book by that guy you like. Steve whatever."

" _Sematary_ ," Alexis corrected, turning to gape at Johnny, who, in turn, stared straight ahead at the T.V. So that was the way it was? Now she just didn't _exist_? _Fine_.

She strolled over to take a seat between Hal and Ricky, only to be seized by Peanut and walked over to the couch instead. "No, you're gonna be sittin' right here with me," Peanut explained, plopping her down right smack between him and Johnny.

Oh he would pay _dearly_ for this.

"Hey Johnny, I thought you was gonna be hanging out with—ow!"

Vance was smacked right upside the head by Norton, who glared at him before shaking his head ever so subtly. Alexis raised an eyebrow at them, but they didn't notice; they were too busy looking over at Johnny, who was shifting awkwardly in his seat.

"Just start the damn movie," he ordered Peanut, sounding miserable and angry.

What was _that_ all about?

* * *

It started out when Johnny made a comment about the old man in the movie that had Alexis laughing so hard, tears were streaming out of her eyes and she was burying her face in his jacket to keep from laughing too loud and disturbing the boys.

The two had then gone back and forth, making comments and jokes and smart remarks and just generally keeping each other in stitches. And now, as the little demon kid went wild unleashing hell on everybody around him, Alexis squeezed Johnny's hand tightly, surprised to find herself frightened.

Alright, maybe she wasn't scared… at all. But still, feeling Johnny's warm, large fingers intertwined with her own was still pretty damn reassuring.

Peanut, of course, had been sitting beside them and seeing what was happening the entire time, and he was smug as hell.

He _knew_ this plan would work—Johnny Vincent and Alexis Monroe were the only two people he knew who couldn't keep their mouths shut during a movie to save their lives. If they didn't start talking during this simply to make up and save their decade-long friendship, they would've started just to have someone to tell their jokes and witty remarks to.

He shut the movie off once the credits started rolling, and one by one the guys stood, stretching and yawning and glaring over at Johnny and Alexis.

"Next time we watch a movie, you two are wearin' duct tape over ya mouths," Lefty hissed, glaring at the two of them, "didn't shut up the entire movie!"

One by one the boys filed out, most of them irritated over having to have watched the movie with extra commentary, courtesy of the boss and Alexis.

Once they were alone, Alexis turned to Johnny.

"So are we friends now? 'Cause if we're not, I'm takin' your jacket 'cause I lost my old one soon as Lilian saw it."

Johnny chuckled, amused by her boldness and easy lopsided smile. He swore, she hadn't changed since she was six years old and missing her two front teeth.

"Yeah," he said, shrugging, "we're friends. But there's no way in hell you're takin' my jacket."

"That's pretty cold," Alexis replied, "you're the worst, man. You suck."

Johnny eyed her for a moment before wrapping his left arm around her neck and putting her into a headlock. "What'd you say about me you little shit? You think this is a joke, huh?!" he threatened, laughing.

"You got three seconds to let go, Vincent, before I bite you just like I did Larry," Alexis threatened, trying but to no avail to get his arm off her.

"You're bluffin'," Johnny challenged.

"Try me."

He let go of her, rolling his eyes. Jesus, she really _hadn't_ changed since she was six years old. How the hell did this little freak ever make it out in the Upper East Side?

Alexis gazed at him for a moment, overcome with joy at having her best friend back. Johnny may have gotten a couple new muscles on his arms, and a significantly deeper voice since freshman year, but he was the same dork she'd grown up knowing.

"I really missed you," she said automatically, eyes growing soft, "I didn't dip out on you, Johnny. I really didn't, it wasn't my cho—"

"'S alright," Johnny replied, looking away. He didn't want to think back to Alexis and freshman year, it was too weird and confusing and distracting. Better keep it put away. "You're here now and… and Neil's got his free oil changes back, and that's… that's all that matters. We're both here now and we're good. We're friends."

She grinned at him and pulled him into a tight hug, burying her face into his shoulder and reveling in the smell of that shitty, cheap cologne he insisted on showering himself in. It was oddly comforting.

"Don't you get all emotional on me now, Monroe,"

"Don't be fuckin' ridiculous, Vincent."


	5. Surprise Girlfriend!

"What time is it?"

"Seven, right on the dot."

"Hey, it's at the Hole, right?"

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Psst… you know who's fighting?"

"Russell and that new kid, Hopkins."

Despite her attempts to focus on Mr. Wiggin's _surprisingly_ dull history lesson, Alexis was unable to tune out the chatter about tonight's fight from the students sitting all around her. Yeah, the fight was a pretty big focus among the students; apparently the last fight had occurred just after she'd left, between Russell Northrop and some kid who'd since transferred from the school.

No surprise there.

She turned around in her desk to face Peanut, who was very indiscreetly texting on his phone.

"Where are we meetin' tonight, Lare-bear?"

He looked up at her, icing her with an unenthusiastic and disapproving face at the new nickname.

"I was thinkin' we'd meet up by the boys' dorm, sound good?"

Alexis nodded, before biting her lip for a little bit to keep from smiling enough to look _too_ suspicious. "Is Johnny comin'?"

Peanut studied her for a moment. What was her deal? Lately, everything was Johnny this and Johnny that—would Johnny be okay with that, and maybe we should go with Johnny, and don't forget to save a seat for Johnny, and Johnny, Johnny, _Johnny_.

"No," he responded slowly, eyes scanning quickly for any sign of Wiggins overhearing him, "he's gonna meet us there. Listen, Alex, what's up with you and Johnny lately?"

She casted her eyes downward for a moment, her beam breaking through. Well, there wasn't _really_ any reason to keep it a secret from him, and if things kept going the way they were, she and Johnny would probably be a thing soon _anyway_.

Maybe Peanut could even offer some advice as to how to get it done faster.

"Well," she began, setting her forearms onto his desk, "remember 9th grade, when you, me, and Johnny were walking 'round the tracks after they shut 'em down?"

He nodded sluggishly at the memory. What was she getting at? Nothing had really ensued that day. They'd just been wandering, the three of them, then they got to the end, and Peanut dipped out to head back to school. Johnny and Alexis had hung back, though, but what was…

 _Oh no_.

"So, after you'd left," Alexis said, the glee in her voice making Peanut more and more uneasy, "me and Johnny kind of hung around the terminus for a bit and then… well, we _kissed_ , dude."

Oh _hell_ no.

Oh _man…_ what was he gonna tell her?

"Uh, Alex," he started, frantically racking his brain for a gentle way to let her down, "that's real nice but uh, I don't know if Johnny's told you this but—"

"Mr. Romano!"

Peanut's head snapped up as he gazed at his clearly infuriated history teacher, who now stood at his desk, scowling directly at Peanut. Alexis whipped around automatically, shoving her face into a book.

"Is there something you would like to share with the _class_?"

Hell _yeah_ there was something he wanted to share with the class—that way Alexis would find out once and for all. But he knew that if he told Wiggins that he _did_ want to share with the class, he'd be heading right on down to Crabblesnitch's, and there was no way in hell he was missing that fight tonight to serve some bullshit detention, even if it meant finally cluing her in.

Larry swallowed and shook his head.

Wiggins turned back around, muttering under his breath about the problems with today's youth, but Peanut paid no thought to it. Had it seriously been this long into the school year and Alex _still_ didn't know about Lola? Johnny hadn't mentioned _Lola_ to Alexis? That was just way too difficult to believe—did Alexis know and just not care? Who was she kidding? There was no way in hell Johnny was leaving anybody for Lola, not even Alex.

 _He had to tell her._

Aw man, but what would _that_ accomplish? She'd moped around for two months when Johnny wasn't speaking to her, how would she be when she found out that he was permanently off the market for her?

Man, he'd only _just_ gotten her to quit her pouting a week ago.

No. This was _Johnny's_ problem.

* * *

Alexis wrapped her arms around herself as she twiddled around in her oversized navy blue Bullworth sweatshirt. The weather was getting moderately cold for early November, so right after gym she'd headed straight to the girls' dorm and changed into a pair of blue skinny jeans. No way was she going to the Hole in her _uniform skirt_ —she didn't plan on freezing to death while she watched two idiots beat the shit out of each other.

Peanut busted out of the boys' dorm after a minute, zipping up his leather jacket before thrusting his hands into his pockets. He looked at Alexis for a second before wrapping his arm around her.

"You cold?" he inquired, pulling her closer to his side.

Maybe he could derail her into liking him rather than Johnny.

Shit, how come _he_ always ended up being the middleman?

"I ain't cold," Alexis protested, though she pressed into Peanut's side even tighter.

She was such a bad liar, he didn't know why she even _bothered_ trying.

"Sure you're not," Peanut retorted, rolling his eyes. He started leading her down the familiar way to the Hole, keeping his eye out for any Prefects. There was no way _he'd_ be the one to give up the location of the Hole. He'd seen what'd happened to that chubby nerd kid, Algie, after he threatened to snitch, and it sure wasn't pretty. Peanut's hair was too perfect for him to put it through that type of beating.

"How come we're not goin' inside the school?" Alexis demanded all of a sudden, looking back. "Aren't we gonna take the elevator?"

Peanut shook his head, thinking back to the previous year. "Crabblesnitch almost found the Hole usin' that elevator so all of us agreed to shut it down. Norton cut the ropes last year."

Alexis nodded, a bit stunned. _So much_ had changed since she'd been at Bullworth. She was pretty lucky that Johnny and Larry were more or less the same.

All these changes were making her head spin.

* * *

They arrived just as some kid—Gary Smith, by the looks of it—climbed out of the Hole. Russell stood in the center facing the same short kid from Chemistry class, and the Hole was filling up with students fast.

Alexis clutched onto Peanut's hand securely, doing her best to not get separated from him as she stood on the tips of her Converse, looking around for Johnny. The Hole was sealing up fast, and she didn't want to wait the duration of the fight to hang out with him.

Even though they'd finally started talking again last week on Halloween, she hadn't really seen much of him lately, and none of the boys ever seemed to know where he was. She was pretty sure they were lying, but as to why, she had no idea.

Peanut straightened up too, eyeing around to whatever it was Alexis was squirming around to get a look at. Maybe if he helped her find whatever it was, she'd stand still for a second so that it wouldn't be so hard to hold on to her.

"Oh hey," he said, as if on auto-pilot, "there's Norton."

He regret it as soon as he said it.

Alexis followed Peanut's gaze and indeed found herself looking at Norton… and oh, _there_ was Johnny.

Walking with some girl she had never seen before?

She called his name as everything seemed to turn to slow motion. Johnny didn't hear her call him, but Norton's reaction was immediate. He turned to look at Alexis, eyes widening in a mixture of surprise and concern as Johnny leaned over and kissed the slim, auburn-haired, leather-clad beauty beside him right on the plump, blood red lips.

Peanut felt as Alexis' hand went limp, and he stiffened his grip on her smaller hand as hers let go, just barely managing to keep her next to him whilst the crowd thickened as the kids around them strained to get a look at the fight that had long since initiated.

"Alex?"

His voice echoed in her mind, she just barely heard him. Johnny was still kissing that girl.

What the hell? Didn't they need to breathe or something?

They broke apart after a moment, and Johnny turned his head and stared straight at Alexis. The color drained from his face rapidly and he opened his mouth as if to say something to her, but shut it after a moment.

"Alex!"

Suddenly she was staggering towards the ground, inhaling sharply and trying to navigate through the acute pain in her chest.

Was she having a heart attack?

No, no, her heart beat was normal, and she could see Peanut pretty clearly, calling her name.

"What?" she snapped as he dragged her out of the crowd.

"You fell down," Peanut countered bluntly, sticking his hands under her armpits and standing her up, using the wall to steady her.

She brushed his hand away as he touched her cheek, and stared in confusion as he retracted it glistening and smudged with black spots.

"You're cryin'," he noted, giving her a pitiful look.

"I'm not cryin'," she protested, wiping underneath her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, minding her eyeliner to keep from smudging it too bad and looking like some sort of street rat. "Why would I be cryin'? Nothin' worth crying over."

"You saw him kiss Lola, didn't ya?"

Alexis let out a dry giggle, shoving her thumbs into the back pockets of her jeans and glaring off to the side, tears still streaming down her cheeks in spite of her.

"So that's her name? _Lola_? Pfft, 's no biggie. Johnny can kiss whoever he wants, ya dig? I don't care. He can kiss that chick, or he can kiss Danvers if he wants or, hell, he can kiss my fuckin' bat if he wants 'cause that can be arranged at _any_ time," she mumbled.

Peanut sucked in a breath, unsure of what to do. She was taking this even worse than he'd expected.

He could hear the fight ending, the chatter was dying down and he couldn't hear any more punches. He'd be pissed as hell with Alexis, had she not been sobbing right in front of him and pretending she was fine.

"Come on," he murmured, wrapping his arm around her waist and leading her away, "let's get outta here."


	6. Fireworks

"Watch your smoke, Lexi."

Alexis batted Ricky's hand away sloppily as he reached over to straighten the cigarette that was currently drooping from her lips, irritated. She wasn't twelve years old, she knew how to keep from setting a house on fire while smoking.

He pulled his hand back instantly, giving her a hesitant look, reminding her vaguely of a kicked puppy.

"I'm fine, Ricky," she replied drowsily, regretting slapping his hand away.

She turned her head to look at the dirty, stained, deteriorating walls of his room in the tenements. Finally, after spending the first half of the semester locked up in the academy, they'd finally opened up the gates on Sunday.

Being so, Ricky and Alexis had decided to take the week off from classes. They'd met up on Monday right before first period by the gates and had jumped onto Ricky's BMX and sped away to New Coventry, stopping only to get some cigarettes, bags of chips, and a couple beers from the Yum Yum Market.

Hell, they _needed_ a break. They were both dealing with _serious_ heartache.

Yeah, a _four day long_ break?

They sat together on the old mattress Ricky slept on whenever he spent nights at the tenements, Ricky sitting with his back against the wall, Alexis laying down with her head in his lap, blowing her smoke away from his face. Around them, crushed cans of Logger beers littered the floor.

"So that bitch jus' ended things 'cause she thought you spent too much time with Rusty?" Alexis clarified, her voice slurring as she referenced Ricky's beloved BMX. That thing was ancient as hell and twice as rusty, hence the name, yet he still worshipped it above any other bike.

Ricky nodded, coughing as he blew out his smoke but instead taking an even profounder draw from his cigarette. "I was just new to the whole 'relationship' thing, ya know? I jus' wish she would'a given me a second chance. Could'a ridden off into the sunset, two of us."

Alexis hiccupped as she nodded, just a little, _tiny_ bit drunk, probably. "Y'know what, Ricky?" she challenged, her voice grave yet still slurred, "Love is for _suckers_. Fuck your ex girl, and y'know what?"

Ricky looked down into her emerald eyes, which were clouded over, she was so drunk. "What?"

"Fuck _Johnny Vincent_ ," she snorted, emphasizing clumsily on Johnny's name and taking a long sip from her Logger before then chucking the can to the other side of the room where it landed with a dull _clunk_.

He nodded, despite the fact that she was insulting the boss. But then again, Alexis had told him what had happened. What Johnny'd done was pretty rotten, not even _mentioning_ Lola to her.

"Whew, you can barely see anythin' through this cloud of smoke!"

Ricky and Alexis looked up at the sound of Peanut's voice by the door. Peanut strolled in, kicking aside various empty beer cans and waving his hands to try and flutter away the smoke cloud that had engulfed him from the moment he'd stepped inside. He looked over to the mattress and saw Ricky and Alexis, both clearly wasted and drunk off their minds.

"Ricky, aren't you supposed to be _doin_ ' somethin'?" Peanut confronted, raising an eyebrow at Ricky. He was supposed to be out keeping an eye on that Gord kid for Johnny today, not smoking, and drinking, and cutting class with Alexis. There was no way he was up for any eye-keeping in his current state.

"Nah," Ricky replied, taking another draw from his cancer stick and smiling down warmly at Alexis, "me and Lexi got it made right now."

Peanut sighed, making his way over to Ricky and helping him up, minding Alexis. He took the cigarette from Ricky's hand and stomped it out, ignoring the ashes that spread out on the already dirty wood floor.

They'd get around to cleaning it, someday.

"Come on man, get up," he commanded, steadying Ricky and walking him over to the door. "Go find Lucky, okay? He's gonna get you cleaned up."

He walked Ricky across the hall to make sure he didn't fall down the giant gaping hole in the floor, and then returned to Ricky's room to find Alexis laying down and still smoking.

"Alex, get up, someone's here to see you."

He strode over to her and picked her cigarette right out of her fingers, stomping it out just like he did Ricky's.

"What's your stinkin' problem?!" Alexis hollered, sitting up swiftly and then holding her head to try to calm the spins. Being drunk was real hard, sometimes.

"Somebody's here to see you," Peanut countered, grabbing her arm and forcing her up. He regret it as soon as he saw her wince in pain, but she really needed to get her shit together. He wasn't about to let her drink and smoke her way to Hell just because she was hurting.

Alexis snatched her arm back, scrambling for the cigarette box that sat on the mattress. He was too fast for her, however, and Peanut had it in his hand and out of her reach in a flash.

"This thing's almost empty!" he reprimanded, wagging the box in front of her face.

She tried to wave his hand away, but missed by a couple of inches. She wished he'd just stay still for a second, all this motion and moving around was getting puzzling.

"I just…" Alexis panted, weirdly out of breath, "I just need o-one…"

She set her hand on Peanut's shoulder, trying to stop the room from spinning. If only she could just lie down again… or have another roll-up.

Sighing, Peanut reached into the box and took out a single cigarette. "I'll give you this if you'll talk to him," he proposed, holding the stick between his index and middle fingers.

Alexis nodded, rubbing at her forehead, trying to keep it from hurting so bad. Maybe she'd just gotten a little _too_ drunk. "I'll talk to whoever it _is_ , Larry, just gimme my cigarette!"

He eyed her for a moment, hoping that giving her _another_ smoke was worth having her talk to him. "Alright Alex, here,"

Peanut handed her the cigarette just as heavy footsteps approached from outside of the room, and after only a few brief instants, Johnny stood in the doorway. Peanut looked at Alexis for a second longer, taking her hand off his shoulder and pressing a kiss against her palm, hoping to god this would work. He gave a curt nod to Johnny and disappeared out of the room.

"Aw, _shit_ ," Alexis moaned, turning around and slumping back onto Ricky's bed as soon as she saw Johnny.

He paid no mind to her obvious displeasure and stepped inside anyway, dragging a crate over by the mattress as he made his way over to her. "Damn, Lex, you put Lefty to shame sometimes."

She rolled her eyes and looked away, pulling a lighter from Ricky's leather jacket's pocket and flicking it on in an instant. She cupped her hand around the minute flame as she lit the cigarette tipping out of her lips, glaring at the window behind him.

"Whattaya want?" she murmured, still not looking at him.

Johnny set his hands on his knees, taking in a breath. Peanut had warned him that Lex was a mess, but he didn't expect _this_. Here she sat, wearing Ricky's leather jacket, looking like she hadn't gotten a real shower since last _week_. Her school blouse was unbuttoned, and he could see her black bra underneath, as well as what looked like _cuts_ all over her torso. Instead of shorts or a skirt, she simply sat there in a pair of black panties, and her long legs were smudged with ash stains from the cigarettes.

God, she was a mess.

"I didn't see you in Chemistry on Monday," Johnny responded, trying to keep from breaking down. Maybe he was still a _little_ pissed at her for ditching him, and maybe he did think it was stupid for her to act like this just because she was upset at him for _whatever_ reason, but still, seeing her like this didn't make him none too cheery. He'd never seen her eyes so dead. It weighed down on him like nothing ever had before.

Alexis shrugged, taking a drag from her cigarette and exhaling it out towards the ceiling, watching as the threads of smoke swayed with each other before diminishing into the air around them. She couldn't believe some people thought that shit was 'beautiful'. It was so stupid. Everything was so stupid.

"I had better things to do," she whispered finally, her voice hoarse.

"You mean hole up in the tenements with Ricky and get wasted?" Johnny snapped, angry.

She looked at him, an odd, crazed smile gracing her lips. "Yes!" she replied, her voice caked in false optimism, as if he were no more than a nonsensical child.

He rolled his eyes, exasperated with her. What the hell was her problem?

"Do you even know what _day_ it is, Lex?" he challenged, narrowing his eyes at her.

Alexis searched his eyes for a moment, struggling for an answer. What a jerk. How the hell was she supposed to know what day it was?! It wasn't like this shit was common knowledge. What did the day of the week matter anyway?

Days were for chumps. Chumps like Johnny Vincent.

"'S Monday," she answered automatically. She and Ricky had left campus Monday, right?

Johnny stood in a flash, kicking the crate he'd been sitting on over onto its side and halfway across the room. God _damn_ her.

"No, Alexis. It ain't Monday. It's _Thursday_. It's five o' clock on fuckin' Thursday, and you're still here smoking and drinking like it's no big _deal_."

He whipped around to face her, breathing heavily and hating her, no, _despising_ her with all his might. Who the _hell_ did she think she was, just letting herself go off and start destroying herself right in front of him? _Nobody_ was allowed to hurt her, not even herself. He didn't care _what_ she thought. Nobody hurt Johnny Vincent's friends, especially not his _best_ friends.

"Why don't you just tell me what your _real_ problem is?" he hissed, leaning in real close to her, expecting her to recoil. Instead, she stretched her neck out so that they were glaring at each other eye-to-eye, mirroring the venom in his eyes.

"You wanna know my _real_ problem, _Vincent_?" she snarled, standing, though their close-up glaring contest remained steady.

He nodded slowly, searching her green eyes for any sort of sign.

"My problem," Alexis began slowly, eyes scanning over his face, "is that I _adore_ you. But y'know what else? I can't _fucking_ stand you. Y'know how confusing that is? I want to be close to you all the time and I want the best for you, but right now I'm also fighting the urge to claw your damn _eyes_ out."

Johnny sucked in a breath, unsure. _Adore_? So that was what this was about? She had a problem with _Lola_?

No. She wasn't allowed to have a problem with Lola—she was supposed to be one of his best friends, she couldn't have a problem with the girl he loved! She was just being… stupid, that's what. She was just overthinking that stupid kiss in 9th grade—so what if they'd stayed up all night talking that night, and so what if he thought he was in love with her and she thought she loved him and so what if all he'd wanted that night was her and—

But no, she wasn't allowed to keep hanging onto that and ruin things for him. Things had _finally_ stopped being confusing and terrible when he and Lola had started going out. Alexis wasn't allowed to just… just _ruin_ it!

"That's it, huh? You just love me now, huh? Why? Cause I kissed you when I was fifteen?"

He watched her face for any sort of reaction, but she stayed the same—angry, fuming. Johnny suddenly felt a very strong urge to hurt her, just like she'd hurt him.

"Yeah, well, that was the biggest mistake of my life. 'Cause now, I'm just _stuck_ with you, aren't I?"

Alexis' eyes widened for a moment, filling up with tears. She stared at him for a moment before taking a deep, deep inhalation from her cigarette, and let her eyes scan over his face and down his body.

"Ya ain't worth the dirt on your shoes, kiddo," she sneered, blowing all the smoke in her mouth out onto his face.

Johnny shut his eyes, clenching his jaw for a moment as he waved the smoke away from his face. He opened his eyes slowly, watching her intently, before placing his hands on her shoulders and shoving her back, lightly enough so that she didn't fall, but enough to shake her up a little.

She stared up at him, overcome with terror. She shouldn't have said that. She'd just been trying to push his buttons, but that'd been too far. That was what his mother had said the day she left. Alexis knew better than to use that in a fight.

He looked at her in shock, unsure of what he'd just done. Yeah, what she said had hurt, but that wasn't any reason to hurt _her_. She was so little… how could he have just done that?

Johnny watched with child-like mystification as Alexis' eyes welled up with tears, and suddenly they were streaming down her dirty face with no signs of stopping.

He stepped back, unsure of what to do. There wasn't any fixing this. Johnny turned on his heel and began walking out of the room.

"Yeah, that's right," Alexis screeched through drunken sobs from behind him, "just run off! Just leave me here alone, that's your go-to thing to do, huh?! Just blame everybody else 'cause you're hurtin' and that's all that matters right?! Go! I won't miss you! I'll never miss you!"

He pushed past Larry, who'd been standing by Ricky's room just long enough to hear the end of the conversation, as he made his way out of the tenements.

Peanut watched in shock as Johnny stomped on down the stairs, and before long he heard the familiar slam of the front door. Snapping back into the present, he rushed into Ricky's room only to find Alexis curled up in the mattress, sobbing. She'd crushed her cigarette in her hand, and the smell of burning flesh was quickly filling up the room. He slapped the cigarette out of her hand and pulled her into his lap, rocking her gently in futile attempts to calm her down.

Well, that's what happens when you set fireworks off too soon. Someone usually gets burned!


	7. Vacant Beds

Alexis' head was hammering fiercely as she woke up gradually on a foreign bed that definitely wasn't hers, but smelled a whole lot like Peanut.

She opened her eyes cautiously, knowing that if she opened them _too_ fast, she'd feel another sharp piercing of pain in her forehead, and right now, she couldn't exactly afford that. Man, it felt like someone were _jackhammering_ on either sides of her temples.

The first thing she saw was the hardwood floor, which had an impromptu carpeting job consisting of clothes—everything from socks, to boxers, to leather jackets—and other junk. Empty chip bags, gum wrappers, candy wrappers.

Her green eyes trailed up to the window, and she realized that someone had thankfully pulled the curtains over so that no light could get into the room. By the looks of it, it sure wasn't morning no more… and a quick glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand beside her confirmed that it was indeed six in the afternoon.

Alexis pulled Peanut's comforter around her body, shivering in the cold. She was only in her underwear, had she… with _Peanut…_?

No, no, they'd never do that when she was _drunk_. And judging by the magnitude of this headache she had right about now, she'd been drunk. As _hell_.

Ten points to the hung-over blonde!

She opened her eyes once again for a moment—if she recalled correctly, Peanut shared this room with three other boys. Norton, Ricky, and Johnny.

Of course, all the other beds were vacant.

She winced in pain as the door suddenly crashed open, revealing Peanut, who then slammed it shut. He looked over at her, oblivious to the agony she was in, and strolled over, placing a dozen bottles and containers of what appeared to be medicine on the nightstand.

"You're awake," he noted, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and grabbing the bottle of aspirin, dumping a couple into his hand. He grabbed a glass of water that Alexis hadn't noticed and held them both out to her, eyes anxious.

"Take these," he instructed, his voice gentle, "it'll make you feel better."

She sat up slowly with help from Peanut, and allowed him to drop the aspirins into her mouth before she took a long, hefty gulp from the glass of water. After, she slumped back down onto the bed and looked up at Peanut, her green eyes large and wide.

"I was in the Tenements, with Ricky. How'd I get here?"

Peanut stared at her for a moment, letting out a short, dry snicker. Did she _seriously_ not remember him finding her sobbing on Ricky's mattress? How he carried her, bleeding and _sobbing_ , out of the Tenements? Paid for a cab to take them back to school, and then carried her up a fucking _awning_ into the girls' dorm? How he had to beat that Taylor kid for insulting her, and then convince her roommate to clean her up?

"I carried you out of there," Peanut retorted bluntly, his eyes cold as he waited for her to recollect.

Alexis nodded, not really remembering being carried out by Peanut, but knowing that it was something he'd probably do for her. "Where's Ricky?"

Peanut reached out, smoothing her hair back from her forehead and eyeing her, unsure. "I've been talkin' with Norton about that, and we both think you and Ricky shouldn't hang out together no more. At least not for a while."

" _What?!_ "

Peanut tensed as he saw Alexis grimace in discomfort, but relaxed as she waved it away. "What do you _mean_ we can't hang out anymore? Who's gonna _stop_ us?"

She crossed her arms, scowling at him. Who did he think he was? Her _father_ , or something? He couldn't just ban her from hanging out with her friends for no _reason_.

He glared back at her, just about ready to start shouting at her, but resisting for her hangover's sake. "You two holed up in the Tenements for four _days_ , Alex! You cut class all week and got drunk off both your asses! Look, I know you're both hurtin' right now, but you just ain't good influences on each other for now! You can't just throw everythin' to shit 'cause you're both 'heartbroken' or somethin'!"

Alexis sniffed, looking in the direction of the window. "I can handle myself just fine after a couple drinks, _Larry_."

"Yeah, sure," Peanut agreed, chuckling sourly, "is that why you had all those cuts?"

Caught off guard, Alexis lifted up Peanut's blanket and looked down at her torso. Surely enough, there were cuts littering her skin, some long and some short, and someone had done a rather shitty job of covering them up with a series of Band-Aids and cut ointments. Groaning, she let the cover fall on her and shifted so that she was on her side, her back to Peanut.

"You've been hurtin' yourself again," Peanut observed brusquely.

"Yeah, well," Alexis scoffed, rolling her eyes, "in case you haven't noticed, I don't deal with being sad none too well."

She looked at him over her shoulder, and raised her eyebrows when she saw Peanut's brown eyes filling up with tears. "You're crying?"

"I ain't _crying_ ," Peanut replied hastily, wiping his eyes with his sleeve indignantly. He looked around the floor for something to wipe his eyes with better, but unless he wanted to use two day old dirty boxers, he was pretty much out of options.

He stood hurriedly, wiping at his eyes desperately but the tears kept on streaming. His eyes wandered to the various pill bottles and medicines on the nightstand, and he quickly grabbed all of them and shoved them into his pockets, deciding that it wasn't safe enough to leave them alone with Alexis in the room.

"I gotta go right now, but Hal's gonna be by to check on you sometime later," he announced, looking anywhere but at her.

What? He was _leaving_? "Where are you going?" Alexis questioned, setting her head back onto his pillow and staring up at him.

"I just gotta do some stuff for Johnny, y'know?" Peanut replied, leaning down and kissing her forehead. "Just sleep or somethin', okay? I love you, Ally."

She rolled her eyes, but took his hand and squeezed it nonetheless—he must be feeling pretty lousy to go back to calling her _Ally_. He was taking all this just a little too seriously. "Love you too, Peanut."

* * *

"Lexi… _Leeeeeexiiii…_ Lexi. Come on, wake up!"

Alexis woke up around two hours later to a finger poking her on the cheek… and poking her… and _poking her_.

"I swear to fucking God, Hal, if you poke me one more time I'll kick you where the sun don't shine."

She opened her eyes and, sure enough, there was Hal, crouching by the bed holding a glass of water and some pills in the hand that wasn't making contact with her face. He backed up a little and straightened, laughing. "Man, Larry was right—you _do_ wake up in a bad mood."

Alexis sat up and rubbed at her eyes, pleased that the headache had subsided considerably. She accepted the aspirin and water from Hal, and then scooted her legs to make room for him to sit on the end of the bed.

"So where have you been?" He asked, studying the circles under her eyes and the disheveled look of her hair. "I haven't seen you since the gates opened."

"Me and Rick camped out in the Tenements for a few days," Alexis responded, shrugging it off as if it were nothing.

Hal raised an eyebrow at her, examining her for any sort of clues. "You cut class for a week to get shitfaced with Ricky?"

For a moment, Alexis considered explaining to Hal the circumstances… but then again what would _that_ accomplish? Johnny would still be with that Lola chick, and she really didn't want to risk having another teary sob session like the one with Peanut. "I mean, it's better than school."

Hal laughed, feeling his phone vibrate and reaching into his pocket to fish it out. "You got that right," he replied as he flipped the phone open and read the latest text from Peanut.

"Oh man, Johnny's not gonna be happy about this," he mumbled, his voice instantly switching from cheery to apprehensive.

"'bout what?" Alexis asked, crawling over to Hal and reading the text over his shoulder.

Peanut Romano: GORD W LOLA MOVIE THTR… KISSIN N STUFF DNT TEL JOHNNY

"Gord?" Alexis asked, furrowing her brows at Hal. That prep kid? With Lola? At the movie theater?

Hal nodded, texting back a quick 'okay' to Peanut. "Didn't Johnny tell you? He's pretty sure Lola's been cheating on him, and he thinks one of them is Gord."

"'One of them'?"

"Uh, yeah?" Hal replied, looking up at her in confusion. Yeah, she and Johnny had had that little spat at the start of the school year, but as far as he knew, they told each other _everything_. Why was Alexis asking all these questions? Shouldn't she know all about it?

"I mean, Johnny knows that if she's cheatin' it's with more than one guy, but he's pretty stuck on Gord being one of 'em."

"She's _cheating_ on him?!" Alexis squeaked, completely overcome with surprise. So Johnny had just gone ahead and blown her off, left her without any closure after she'd told him her goddamn _feelings_ for him and all the while he knew this little _slut_ was two-timin' him?! Since when did Johnny Vincent waste his time being a victim, especially when he was being _cheated_ on? That sure wasn't the Johnny Vincent that _Alexis_ had known since Kindergarten!

She threw Peanut's comforter off of her and began stomping out of the room, not caring about all the dirty clothes and bug-infested food wrappers she was stepping on. After she was through with him, Johnny was gonna have his head screwed right back on his shoulders whether he liked it or _not_.

"Lexi, wait, you can't go out there in your underwear—!" Hal screamed after her, reaching out for her and just barely missing by a couple inches.

But Alexis paid no mind to him. She had business to take care of.

And a dorm-full of boys to make happy?


	8. That's all, Folks!

Johnny Vincent paced back and forth in the Blue Balls pool hall as he waited for Peanut to call, text, _anything_.

It was the waiting that was the worst part, he acknowledged, as he felt his heart beat wildly in his eardrums. The flutter of a caged bird inside of his ribcage each time his mind began to touch on the subject.

 _Lola_.

How could it be? His queen, his sunshine, his guiding star… betraying him? It just didn't make sense. He gave everything he had to Lola. His love, his heart, his devotion. Even going against his best friends for her. How could she find solace in another?

How _dare_ she?

But no, he couldn't get angry, not with Lola. It was his anger that drove everyone away, he'd have to keep it under control. If there was one thing he couldn't lose, it was Lola.

Johnny took a seat on the dirty, olive green couch, digging his fingertips into one of the rips on the couch's surface. The suspense was just beginning to claw at him, the wild, caged bird inside of him just beginning to eye for a way out. It wasn't until he heard the ripping of the couch stuffing that he looked down and realized he'd made the one-inch hole about seven inches longer.

He pushed his hair back and flipped on the television as he began toying around with the stud in his ear. His eyes absently grazed over the screen as different scenes of war footage unfurled, left ear swinging the earring back and forth, the one he'd had since ninth grade. Ninth grade Christmas, when Alexis had given it to him to replace the girlish golden star that the piercer had placed in for him.

There she was again. In the stud. Aggravated, he pulled it out and threw it with all his might, barely hearing the dull 'clink' it made as it smashed into the wall. And then, almost as if on autopilot, he trekked over to where it had landed and picked it up, cradling it in his hands as if it were a precious diamond.

He didn't know what to do about her. He'd been so damn happy to have her back, so happy to have had her in his arms again on Halloween, he'd momentarily forgiven her for everything. And then, a week later, he finds her hurting herself, getting drunk, and then to top it all off, she'd told him… _that_.

Johnny didn't really get what Alexis' deal was anymore. They'd been friends for as long as he could remember, and somewhere along the way, she'd just… _liked_ him. She'd been pretty good about dealing it when he had been with Patti, though—why couldn't she do the same for Lola? It was obvious she had something against Lola personally; why else would she be making such a big deal about it this time?

He stood instantly when the door to the hall burst open, and he whipped around to face it. There, standing like some sort of heavenly, glowing disaster. She wore what looked like male's clothes—he recognized them, they seemed like Peanut's—and looked like an absolute wreck.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, his voice furious, but his heart fluttering like the wings on a hummingbird. He furrowed his eyebrows, but had to fight the urge of pulling her into his arms, where he knew she'd be safe.

God damn it, this was getting too confusing.

"I need to talk to you," Alexis replied, her voice hoarse but not quite drunk. She bounded over to him, her bare feet making light pats on the dirty carpet, until she was craning her neck up to look at him. Her arms crossed over her chest, one of her feet tapping as if she were some sort of impatient child.

Johnny shrugged, turning around hurriedly and taking a seat back on the couch. He focused on the gruesome battle being documents on the television screen, his fingers once again digging into the cushion. He wasn't sure if he wanted to kiss her or strike her.

"And what is it that needs to be brought to my attention?" he inquired evenly, sounding frighteningly monotone even to himself.

Alexis stopped, annoyed but not surprised by his unwelcoming attitude. After what happened the last time she'd seen Johnny, she didn't really expect him to kiss both her cheeks and serve her a cup of tea, but she'd expected something a little more involved than… that.

"It's about… um, your _girlfriend_ ," she explained, unable to help the curling of her lip that occurred upon saying the word.

Johnny tensed instantly on the mention of Lola.

Oh no.

"What about 'er?" he asked, fingers digging into the cushions even deeper.

He heard her suck in a breath, and after a moment she sat beside him on the couch, her knee touching his slightly. His eyes concentrated on the contact until they began burning, and he looked away as if his life depended on it, instead focusing on the different battle shots on the television.

Alexis took a second to gather her thoughts, unsure how to continue. How was she supposed to tell Johnny that she knew this chick was cheating on him without sounding jealous?

Which, she totally was, but he couldn't know that of course.

"I think… well, actually, I know that…" she let out a sigh, second guessing herself. Sure, she was mad at Johnny, and yeah, she was jealous as all hell of this Lola chick, but was hurting Johnny really worth it?

Though, then again… _not_ telling him might hurt him more, in the long run.

And a rebound shot is always open?

"Lola's cheating on you!" Alexis blurted out, surprised herself at the volume of her voice.

Well, that's one way to deliver news.

Johnny froze, feeling his body go cold. "You're making that up," he spat, his eyes glazed over and trained on the T.V., "you're jealous of her."

Alexis' jaw tightened at that, and she took in a sharp gulp of breath. Okay, _that_ stung… but it wasn't exactly unexpected, either. She'd been pretty clear about how she felt about both Johnny _and_ Lola in the Tenements.

"It's true," she replied calmly, her voice small and light, "Peanut saw them together at the movie theater. The one in Old Bullworth Vale. They were on a date. He said he saw them kissing, and if you don't believe me then you can ask Peanut or Hal. They'll tell you."

Alright, so maybe she wasn't just making it up, Johnny could accept that. So… Lola _was_ cheating on him? He'd been suspecting it, but he never thought it'd be so… true… and he'd always thought that even if it was true, it wouldn't have been with someone off the _enemy side_ …

Okay, maybe he had, but still. This was low.

He wiped frantically at the tears forming in his eyes, his hands curling into fists. He wanted to hit something, and he was pretty sure that Alexis wasn't exactly the best target at the moment.

 _Alexis._

Johnny looked up at her, his eyes blazing with anger. She just couldn't keep her mouth shut, couldn't she? Insulting Lola, proclaiming her supposed love for him, and now just… ratting Lola out, expecting to win some gold star from him?

"You don't get it, do you?" he heard himself ask, furious.

Alexis felt her mouth make a small 'o', caught off guard. She'd planned a lot of reactions that Johnny might have after she delivered the latest blow to him, ranging from her having to comfort him while he sobbed uncontrollably on her shoulder, to him cheering and pulling her into a kiss the moment she told him.

This, however, was radically unexpected, and she was vaguely reminded of the first day of class.

"Get what?"

Johnny took in a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a moment as he calmed himself down. He'd let his anger out soon, but right now, it wasn't the time nor the place.

"You're not just gonna sub in for Lola."

" _What_?" Alexis asked sharply, her eyebrows raising in shock. What the hell was _that_ supposed to mean?

"What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?" she shrieked.

Johnny leaned backwards, his back slamming against the stiff frame of the couch's backrest. He stared at the floor in front of his feet, trying to calm himself down. Man, this hurt.

"You. Are. Never. Going. To. Replace. Lola." He explained.

Alexis bit her lip, studying him, but his face gave away no clues. "What do you mean, replace Lola?" she asked, feeling as her heart rate slowly began escalating until she could feel it thumping in her ears. She felt like she was going to throw up.

He tried to drag his eyes over to meet her green ones, but found it more or less impossible. "Lex. I'm never gonna love you like I love her. Never. Why can't you just accept that? You didn't just have to try and get Hal and Peanut to lie for you. It's not gonna work. I'll never love you like I love her. Ever."

She swallowed thickly, her eyes brimming with tears. It wasn't that she wasn't _expecting_ this but…

No, she _hadn't_ been expecting this. She hadn't been expecting this at _all_. Was she really losing Johnny Vincent?

"But… I love you…" she mumbled quietly, sounding dumb even to herself.

"Yeah," Johnny agreed, nodding, "I know that. But it still stands."

Alexis stared forward, concentrated on the floor in front of her feet. "So that's it then? You and I are done? I'm out of the clique?"

"No…" he replied, a sharp pain arising in his stomach, "you're not… out… just…"

Man, he could barely speak right now.

And neither could she, as she stood up and walked out of the pool hall, away from Johnny.


	9. Christmas Lights

"I told you I don't want to talk about it," Alexis mumbled as she and Larry trekked through the snow down the sidewalk outside of Worn In in New Coventry.

It was 11 PM on Christmas Eve, and the two teenagers were headed back to the Tenements after spending four awkward, stuffy, and generally uncomfortable hours at Alexis' father's home in the western area of Old Bullworth Vale. They were both happy to leave; Larry couldn't wait to get out of the loaned monkey suit Mr. Monroe had demanded he wore, and Alexis had had a little too much to drink, resulting in a bonding session with none other than Derby Harrington on the balcony of the house. Besides, as much as she tried to get along with her old man, it was just a bit too stiff for her liking.

Larry sighed, watching Alexis from the corner of his eye as they walked. Her leather-jacket-covered arm was looped through his own to keep her from falling, and even with the dim moonlight shining over her face he could tell her eyes were sunken.

"I just wanna know what happened with you guys. One day, you're crying and actin' all sad all the time, and the next, you won't talk to me about nothing. And just like that, Johnny's spendin' more time with Lola than ever. I know something happened between you only the two of youse could mess up each other's lives in a day."

"Why do you always gotta talk about feelings, man..." Alexis mumbled to herself, rolling her eyes. She stumbled as Peanut suddenly stopped, looking back at him only to see him with the same dumb, stubborn face he'd put when Jim told him he had to wear a suit for the Christmas party.

She let out a long, annoyed sigh, tugging at his arm gently. "If you jus' gotta know, Johnny made himself real clear about how he's feelin' about me."

"And how is he feelin'?" Peanut pushed on, knowing it was useless. She wasn't gonna tell him anything.

Just as he'd predicted, she shrugged, keeping her hands tucked into her jacket pockets, burrowing closer into his side every time a chilled breeze blew by.

Before long, the two of them had arrived at the abandoned Tenements that the Greasers had claimed at their own, and Peanut gruffly unlocked the door with an old, rusty key he kept in the back pocket of his jeans. He stepped into the Tenements, pulling Alexis in behind him, before shutting the door tight and locking it once again. They climbed up the crumbling staircase and entered one of the empty bedrooms, where the majority of the boys sat on an assortment of old mattresses and wooden crates. In front of them, someone had dragged in an old television along with a worn-looking EXsorbeo 720 and set them on the floor.

"Hey guys," Norton greeted from a mattress pushed up against the wall, looking up from his worn copy of The Outsiders, "merry Christmas."

Peanut grinned and mumbled a 'merry Christmas' back, nudging Alexis to do the same.

"You guys are back?" Hal asked, his eyes focused on the game he and Lefty were playing. His thumbs moved wildly along the controller, and to Peanut it didn't really look like he had any sort of strategy besides button-smashing. Though, it wasn't as if Lefty had any sort of complex strategy worked out either.

"Great, now we can get to presents," Lefty announced, pausing the game and tossing the controller onto the floor, where it landed with a crash, making Vance jump.

"Aw Lefty, look what you made me do!" he complained, looking up at said greaser with a bit of hair grease smacked onto his forehead. Vance grunted as Lefty nudged him to move away from the bedroom's closet door with his foot, mumbling profanities aimed at Lefty under his breath.

Lefty paid no mind to him and began yanking brown paper bags stuffed with poorly wrapped gifts out of the closet, and in the meantime, Peanut and Alexis began making their way to sit down. Norton made way for them on the mattress he was sitting on, scooching over to the edge that Lucky was seated nearest to.

Alexis laid her head on Peanut's shoulder as Lefty and Vance dragged over the bags with presents, just now noticing the dried up baby Christmas tree set up next to one of the crates. The boys must have set it up while Alexis and Peanut were stuck at the Christmas party.

"You doin' okay?" Ricky asked from beside her, taking a seat on the dirty wooden floor beside te end on the mattress she was sitting on. Peanut had held true to his word, and had prohibited Alexis from hanging out with Ricky since what'd happened last time, and it surprised her that he still remembered. Smiling gratefully she nodded, squeezing his hand gently, trying to ignore the fact that Johnny was not there.

* * *

Dozens of tight hugs, six piles of ripped up newspaper, and various exchanged presents later, the boys had resorted back to their original activities. Lefty and Hal were right back at it on their racing game on the 720, Norton stuck his nose into the page he'd been reading on the new copy of The Outsiders he'd received from Peanut, Vance continued perfecting his already perfect hair, and Lucky continued his commentary of Lefty and Hal's game. Alexis, Ricky, and Peanut conversed on a mattress, with Peanut more or less moderating the conversation to make sure Ricky and Alexis didn't start talking emotional issues again.

Heavy footsteps leading up outside of the room caught everyone's attention. Within moments, the leader stood in the doorway, a Yum Yum Market grocery bag hanging from one of his hands.

"Hey," he mumbled, staring at the ground as he began walking around the room, handing out boxes of cigarettes from the bag he was carrying to each of the boys. Alexis watched as they all gave him small, sad smiles, not one of them commenting on Johnny's failure to show up for one of the most important holidays.

She held her breath as he got to Peanut, handing him his box of cigarettes. Peanut mumbled something to him and Johnny nodded, though Alexis didn't catch what he'd said.

Johnny tossed Ricky his pack, before turning his gaze to Alexis. She raised an eyebrow as he held out an empty hand to her. What, did he forget about her and expect her to have gotten him something?

Well, she had, but she wasn't about to just reach into her jacket pocket and hand it over to him.

She looked up at him, immediately noting the dirt smudged on his face, though she remained with a blank expression.

"Are you coming or not?"

Alexis hesitated for a moment, immediately turning to Peanut. He nodded, so she turned to Ricky, who gave a slight shrug. Thinking about it for a moment, she took a grip of Johnny's hand and stood, allowing him to lead her out of the Tenements.


	10. Train Tracks

It's snowing gently as Johnny and Alexis approach the familiar abandoned train station, their hands in the respective pockets of their jackets.

Alexis watches as her breath comes out in little puffs in front of her, unsure of what to say. She hadn't been expecting to see Johnny at all today, especially not with how rocky everything had become between them, especially not with knowing that he had someone else waiting for him. The fact that he'd appeared out of nowhere, so suddenly, and had taken her to their old meeting spot was even more bewildering.

They silently come to a stop, taking a seat on the concrete platform of the station. Johnny reaches into his pocket, eyes cast down, before fishing out two cigarettes.

"You got a light?" he asks quietly, not looking at her.

Automatically, her hands fly to the different pockets of Peanut's old leather jacket, before coming up empty, save for a lone match. She frowns, unhappy at the idea of disappointing him. Great, now all they have are just two unlit cigarettes. This is already going down the toilet, and he's barely spoken a full sentence to her.

"This is all I got," she replies, holding it out to him as if it were a ticking bomb rather than a harmless piece of wood.

"That'll work," Johnny counters simply, taking the match from her fingerless glove covered hands and flicking it up against his upper teeth. Alexis watches in amazement as the match, miraculously, lights into a small but fierce flame.

"Jeez," she mumbles, letting out a shaky breath as she allows Johnny to light her cancer stick for her, "you just got about a million tricks up your sleeve, don'tcha?"

Johnny shrugs it off as if it were nothing, but he is unable to completely hide the small smile that arises from the fact that little things he does impress her. "Somethin' like that," he replies coolly, lighting his own cigarette and taking a long, long drag from it.

Alexis traces a small 'A' into the snow gathering on the ground beside her on the cement flooring of the terminus with one of her fingers. She can feel the mood turning into a serious one, and she doesn't like it. The train tracks are as empty as they've always been ever since they'd found the place with Peanut back in the sixth grade, and she'd always liked the solitude of them. But right now, it was making her feel uneasy, and she doesn't like it, or the silence. She figures that if Johnny wants to drag her all the way out here, he can be the one to start the damn conversation.

"Are you still mad?"

Her green eyes flick up to him, unsurprised to see his own brown ones trained on a pebble or something on the ground in front of him. Johnny isn't real into talking about his feelings, so when he has to, he tends not to look at people. Sometimes Alexis can't remember if he picked it up from her, or if she had picked it up from him.

"No," she snaps, remembering her anger. She was mad, but she didn't want to talk about it. Besides, he knew damn well she hadn't been angry at him the last time they'd spoken.

Johnny takes a deep breath, trying to look for another opening. It's pretty clear she's lying, she's not that good of a liar to begin with, but he doesn't really know what else to say to her, anyway. So they just sit there, huddling closer to each other for warmth, puffing on their cigarettes. Neither of them saying a word, but yet an entire conversation exchanging between them. It sickens him.

"I meant it when I said it, y'know."

He looks up at her when she says this, a bit surprised. He knows what's coming, but he's stuck like the calm before a storm.

But she shies away from the subject, nervous. She's already made her feelings for him clear, and he's made his feelings about those feelings clear, too.

"Peanut tells me she ain't exactly the greatest neither," Alexis continues, reaching for his free hand automatically.

He lets out a heavy sigh, feeling guilty. There's a pretty good chance he shouldn't have screamed at her last time, but he can't really find the words or the willpower to apologize for it. He squeezes her hand gently.

"I couldn't help it, Lex" Johnny mumbles, the words stumbling out like bad poetry, "you were gone real long and it wasn't like I could just sit around waitin' for y-"

"You know damn well I didn't just up and leave by my own accords, Johnny Vincent, so don't fuckin' act like it," Alexis snaps, venom filling her voice. If there's one thing she's decided since the reality check he gave her, it's that she's done with this bullshit of him blaming her for leaving.

Johnny lets out a sigh, understanding this. It wasn't much of an excuse, anyway, to keep blaming her for leaving; he knows it wasn't her fault at this point.

"We broke up."

That catches her off guard, and her eyes once again flick up to meet his. "I thought you..."

"I know," he replies quietly, "I did too. But I guess she didn't."

Alexis watches him for a moment, unsure of what to do. What was she supposed to do? Comfort him? Shit, she didn't know how to comfort anybody. What'd he expect her to do? When she was upset she drank.

"That bites," she shrugs, finding herself not really caring.

He can't tell, and he finds himself intertwining his fingers with hers, appreciating her. He didn't have to be angry around Alexis, he could just be sad.

"I really thought she was the one, Lex," he says quietly.

Slowly, her jaw begins to tighten. Does he really expect her to sit here and play therapist? She didn't give a fuck what Johnny thought about Lola.

"From the day I saw her, I thought I was gonna marry her but then... she's cheatin' on me, man... and I didn't believe it 'cause I wanted to trust her. Can you believe that? Me, Johnny Vincent, killin' myself while she's whoring it out with that Gord-o kid and God knows who else."

He glances at Alexis, unable to read her expression. She looks so pretty there in the moonlight, her green eyes reflecting the white from the snow... and for a moment, he finds himself wanting to kiss her.

She could've slapped him at this moment. Did he seriously just drag her out here just to play therapy?

"I think I was wrong, though," Johnny says, unaware of the words coming out of his mouth, and maybe it was the whisky he drank before this or the sadness or both, but he finds himself meaning it as he says "'cause I think the right girl for me is right here."

Her reaction is like the slap in the face she wanted to give him but hadn't.

"No," Alexis sighs, letting go of his hand and standing. "Nah, man. I'm not doing this. You can't do this. You can't love me when you're lonely."

"I don't..." Johnny begins, but he stops.

Alexis lets out another sigh, expecting tears that just aren't coming this time. She accepts it, pleased with herself. "I love you, Johnny, and I'm real sorry you're hurtin', but I'm not doing this. I'm getting off this rollercoaster.

He stares at her for a second, confused. "This mean we ain't friends anymore?"

She shakes her head, unable to really picture that. "No. We're friends. I'm just gonna head to the dorm. My head hurts."

She jumps down from the platform and onto the snow, her hands wrestling with her blonde hair trying to keep it out of her face as the wind blows by. Getting on her bike, Alexis takes one final look at him and gives him a slight wave.


	11. Bells

The inside of Burger was about as appealing as its exterior, yet Alexis found herself drawn to it; undoubtedly because it was the only place open on ChristmasEve this late at night.

She sat alone in one of the booths, a double-patty burger cooling on the ketchup-stained table in front of her. She would've given anything to have Peanut with her at that moment.

The sound of the bells above the door to the locale called her attention, and she turned to look, quickly noting the uninterested cashier flicking through a magazine that looked suspiciously like BlaBla. At the door stood none other than Alexis' roommate, Piper Harrington.

"Piper?" Alexis asked automatically, earning the Prep's attention. Piper quickly made her way over to Alexis' booth, pulling off her red coat and slumping down in the seat facing Alexis.

"I've had a bloody terrible night, love," she admitted, placing both elbows on the table and burying her face in her hands, "and I just don't know how to fix any of it."

"Join the club," Alexis replied glumly, sinking back in her side of the booth.

Piper looked up at her, a puzzled expression on her face. Alexis shrugged it off, however, instead choosing to glance out the window, where she saw yet another familiar face.

The jock kid came in as abruptly as Piper had, and the cashier didn't look up once. He looked around for a moment, his messy brown hair momentarily obstructing his eyes that Alexis remembered were gray, before settling on the girls' table. Without any form of invitation, he came over and sat right down beside Alexis.

"Um?" she said, irritated.

"'Scuse me ladies, I've just had a real bad night and I'm just lookin' for some company that ain't superficial," he replied.

Alexis narrowed her eyes, her irritation growing more, but Piper's eyes had soften. "That's alright, Jesse, I believe all three of us have had unpleasant nights."

Jesse let out a laugh, leaning back and absently setting his arm around Alexis' shoulders. She glared at him, ready to hit him, but he didn't seem to even realize he was doing it. Instead he continued grinning at Piper.

"I'm guessin' yours mighta had somethin' to do with a boy? 'Cause my situation sure had somethin' to do with a lady, and it didn't turn out none too well."

Piper sighed and nodded, and Alexis rolled her eyes before nodding. "Well, mine did," she admitted, looking away.

"Miss Monroe, is it?" Jesse asked, allowing Alexis time to confirm his memory. "Well, if you don't mind my askin', just what is it that happened to make you upset?"

She considered, for a moment, the act of confiding in someone she didn't know at all and someone she'd only known for a few months, before deciding there was no harm in it. Knowing Johnny, he'd probably be denying everything the moment that Lola came back to him, and Alexis didn't want it like that.

"One of my best friends, Johnny Vincent? He broke up with his dame, and decided to try and tell me it's me he loves, but I know that isn't true. He's just lonely; he's done it before."

She looked up nervously, expecting judgemental stares or simply ones of disbelief, but both Piper and Jesse's eyes were warm. Taking a deep breath, she continued.

"His old girl, Patti? He was real into her, too. Then when they broke up, same thing happened, not as much, though. He wasn't as broken up about it as he was 'bout this one. I don't know, I didn't wanna fall for it no more."

"Sounds like a real rat," Jesse stated, his voice filled with anger, "you just say the word and I'll get the entire football team and we'll teach that greaseball a lesson."

She found herself smiling a little, comforted by the sureness in Jesse's voice, and she didn't pull away when he pulled her in for a light hug. "Naw, it's alright."

Jesse nodded, before looking at Piper, who'd been smiling at the two of them vaguely the way a mother would at her children. "What about you, lil' miss Harrington? Who hurt you on this fine night?"

Her smile wiped off her face, instead replaced by a look of embarrassment. "We-Well... he didn't quite hurt me to say the truth..."

"Now if you don't mind my language, that's some real bullshit, miss. I can see right in your eyes, you're hurtin' bad," Jesse replied, furrowing his eyebrows.

Piper let out a sigh, her shoulders sinking. "Well, you see, it's Bif. You know, Bif Taylor, the boxer? He's been quite apprehensive on how he feels for me, lately, and just today he's decided that he loves me. I suspect he simply isn't quite ready to lose me to Parker, however..."

"He's a dick," Alexis shot out before she could stop herself, "he's an absolute jerk."

Granted, she did dislike the way he'd acted towards Piper, but Alexis realized that the majority of her hatred towards Bif Taylor came from the hatred that Johnny harbored towards him.

"That sure don't sound too nice," Jesse agreed, reaching out for Piper's hand. She hesitated for a moment, but placed her hand in his, holding on tightly.

"What about you, Tyler?" Alexis asked, sounding a little more angry than she'd intended. She tried to soften her voice before continuing. "Who's tugging on your heartstrings?"

Jesse gave Alexis a quick smile, and she noted him squeezing Piper's hand gently. "Why, I'll have to swear both you ladies to secrecy. This kinda thing will tear the football team right to shreds, yeah?"

Alexis and Piper both agreed, unconsciously edging slightly closer to Jesse in anticipation for just what he would say.

"You see," he admitted, staring down at a smudge on the table, "I think I made the mistake of fallin' in love with the head cheerleader, Mandy Wiles."

Alexis found her lip curling up in disgust, though she quickly stopped before Jesse would be able to see. She'd never be able to fathom just why the boys at school were so damn into the Wiles girl-she was annoying as hell, and prior to the current year always had a tendency of showing up and trying to be the "damsel in distress" whenever Johnny was around.

"That... that certainly is a predicament..." Piper agreed after a pause.

Jesse nodded, pulling Alexis a little closer, squeezing Piper's hand just a tad bit more. "She says she don't know what she wants, though. I reckon she just wants to stir up drama, and it's workin'. I ain't ever felt this mixed up about a lady yet... here I am, wanderin' the streets and pilin' my problems on top of two already stressed out ladies."

"It's fine, man," Alexis replied, letting out a sigh. "Guess we're all fucked on Christmas. Dandy."

They hung like that for a couple minutes, Alexis resorting to resting her head on Jesse's shoulder, Jesse and Piper staring at the table. None of them able to find any words, yet still enjoying each other's company. Some sort of silent agreement lead them to exchanging phone numbers. Before long, Piper's phone buzzed with a text message, breaking the stillness.

She pulled it out, glancing at the small screen. Her blue eyes scanned the message before widening, and she hastily stood from the table, ripping her hand away from Jesse, startling both him and Alexis.

"Oh lord, I'm so sorry, I need to go r-right away...!" she explained, eyes still trained on the screen as she grabbed her coat and pulled it on.

"I'm sorry, we'll talk again soon!" she called as she ran off towards the door, the entrance bells jingling in her absence.

"Well that was odd..." Jesse mumbled, shifting his gaze from the door back to Alexis. She shrugged, but her attention was once again dragged to the entrance as the bells once again jingled, signifying new presence.

"Alexis Monroe?"

Standing in front of the table was a tall boy, with a bunch of piercings in his face. He wore a red and black striped sweatshirt, and his ripped up jeans were covered in dirt stains. She'd seen this guy a couple times, and Alexis was pretty sure one of his arms was covered in tattoos.

"Who the hell are you?"

The kid chuckled, crossing his arms but not taking a seat. "Jason Griffith. I know you're having a problem right now, and I can help. Let's go."

All the reason and logic she held screamed at her to remain seated with the dumb-yet-trustworthy Southern jock who currently had his arm around her, yet something about Jason Griffith's eyes calmed her, and convinced her that she should come with.

"Sorry Jess," Alexis mumbled, giving him an apologetic look, "I gotta go."

"All good," Jesse replied, his voice a bit monotone, "just gimme a ring if you need me."

He allowed Alexis to exit the booth, and she followed after Jason into the night.


	12. Broken Dam

"Where are we going?"

The question hung in the air, left out to dry, for the third time since Jason Griffith had wandered into Burger and convinced Alexis to follow him into the dark, without any sort of idea as to where he was taking her. She should've known better than to go off with some guy she didn't know like that. Cautiously, she reached into her jeans pocket, already planning out a message to Peanut.

"You don't gotta do that," Jason said, not bothering to look back at her as he strode at a slightly faster pace than her, hands shoved deep into his pockets, "I'm not gonna like, kidnap you or something."

The way he spoke made it sound as if he was being sarcastic about everything, and mocking her ever so slightly. Still, Alexis retracted her hand from her jeans and returned it to its place in her leather jacket pocket.

Struggling a little to keep up with his rapid pace, Alexis jogged up to him, glaring. "If you ain't trying to kidnap me, the fuck you want me for?"

As abruptly as they'd started walking, Jason stopped, turning to face her. He studied her for a long while, eyebrows furrowed as if she'd done something wrong. Uncomfortable, Alexis looked around.

"The lookout? What, you tryna get in my pants or somethin'?" she complained, crossing her arms over her chest, irritated.

Chuckling, Jason raised his hands as if being held at gunpoint. "You caught me. I was bored with my otherwise so interesting life, so I decided to head to the nearest shitty burger joint in hopes of picking up some chick to take her to the lookout at three in the morning in fucking snow, 'cause I thought hey, why not get laid?"

Annoyed by his blatant patronization, Alexis shook her head. "Alright, sunshine, then I repeat; what the fuck do you want?"

Casting his gaze over to the mountains and ocean inlet beyond the lookout fence, Jason crossed his own arms, an eyebrow raised as if he were in deep thought. "I'm guessing by that ratty-looking leather jacket you're wearing that you hang with Vincent and his goons, am I right?"

"They ain't goons," Alexis countered, immediately infuriated by the insult. _goons_ ," Alexis countered, immediately infuriated by the insult.

"Right," Jason replied, rolling his eyes. Greasers. So stupid. "So, yes. You do run with that wrench monkey."

He made his way over to one of the benches, sitting down on the floor in front of it and spreading his arms along the actual seat. "So, what are you to him? Little sister? Voice of reason? Piece of ass on the side? What?"

Even further angered, Alexis let out an aggravated sigh, looking anywhere but the tattoo-covered asshole sitting in the snow in front of her. Realistically, she should flick this kid off and turn around and head back to New Coventry. Hell, even if none of the boys were up and able to keep her company or unlock a door to a building for her to crash in, she could always head to the Vale and sleep at Jimbo's. Not like he could deny her entry, anyway.

Still, she remained, and Jason nodded as he pieced things together with the information he and his kids had gathered. "I see. Darling little Johnnyboy is too blinded by big bad Lola to notice dear, sweet Alexis, huh?" he crossed his legs in front of him, watching her amusedly. "What, did he kiss you and then run back to her? That's sad, isn't it?"

"Screw you," Alexis interrupted, his words stinging. What, did everyone in the school know about the way Johnny acted around her?

Laughing, Jason shook his head. "You're a piece of work, aren't you? This guy does whatever he wants with you. It's cute, how you're just willing to be his lapdog."

"Shut up," Alexis commanded, feeling more and more like a little girl the more she tried to get him to back off. Still, he gave her that same asshole grin he'd been giving her from the moment she guessed at his intentions. She'd never be able to understand why so many girls were into this kid; at least the Tyler kid was a nice guy. This guy was a prick in every sense of the word.

Just like that the smile was wiped off his face as if someone had gone over it with a rag drenched in cleaning solution. "You're pathetic," he said, snapping her gaze to him. Something about the streetlights mixed with the moonlight made his eyes look golden, like a cat's. It was both captivating and intimidating at the same time.

Shaking her head, Alexis uncrossed her arms and put her hands on her hips, a habit she'd formed when she was a little kid and Johnny or Larry refused to tell her what they were doing on the basis that it was 'no girls allowed'. "Just what the hell do you want from me?" she asked finally.

"You already know. I was trying to get a shot at getting laid."

"I'm being serious, _asswipe_."

Bringing a knee to his chest and setting his forearm on it, Jason studied her again, the same stupid one-eyebrow-raised look he'd been giving her earlier. Calling up her bitchiest stare, Alexis glared right back at him, acting as if she were studying and looking into his damn soul or whatever, too.

"I wanna know _why_ ," Jason said finally, his gold-looking eyes staring right into her green eyes.

Shivering in the cold a little, Alexis gave him a confused, bewildered look. "Why _what_?"

"Why do you put up with it?" Jason repeated, standing and approaching her. "Why do you let that guy do what he wants with you and then crawl back to that whore? What are you, some sort of greasy masochist?"

Backing away a little from him, Alexis looked off at the mountains, uncomfortable. "I don't give a shit what Johnny does."

"Bullshit," Jason replied, annoyed.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out a cigarette and a lighter. Lighting it, he held it out to her, unsurprised when she took it and immediately took a drag from it. Tripp and Gage had reported on the kid's nicotine addiction. Pleased with their work, he took out a cigarette for himself, his eyes never leaving hers.

" _Tell_ me," he commanded.

"He's my best friend," Alexis replied quietly, looking down at her feet. "Been so since we were kids, you get how that is?"

Jason nodded, watching her closely.

"And then one day he figures out he can count on me every time some broad breaks his heart. He's such a fuckin' jerk. Hated the girls first, y'know? Patti. This one. But then I realized that it ain't girls huntin' me down, it's him." She shook her head, taking a long drag from her cigarette. "Goddamn vulture."

"Then _help_ me," Jason urged, his own cigarette hanging from his lips. When he saw her confused, angry look, he shook his head. "Don't get your panties in a bundle. I don't give a fuck about taking the kid down, least not now. I want my turf in Coventry. We had an agreement, and your boy's on the verge of breaking it."

Alexis shook her head a little, unsure. "I don't know about plottin' against Johnny."

"He's not gonna get hurt," Jason snapped hastily, annoyed that this was taking longer than he'd planned. "Just hang out with me. Show 'im we got mutual friends."

"What's in it for me?" she asked finally, bringing a smile to his lips as he finally saw he had her.

"You don't got to live in Lombardi's shadow anymore."

"...Deal."


	13. Hardwood Floors

"Yo… you… you ever realize how soft wood is? Like on the floor and shit? It's like… like a 1,000 thread count sheet, man…"

Alexis said this as she lowered her face down onto the floor and rested her cheek on it, relishing in the gentleness of the material on her skin. It was so goddamn soft.

"Like the hardwood floor? Nah… Nah, it's hard," Ricky countered, lowering himself down as well and resting his own cheek on the floor. Still, he could see the point she made. Something about it was pretty inviting…

She shot an 'I-told-you-so' look back at him and reached for the blunt in his hands, taking as long and as deep of a drag from it as she could manage. Her cheeks sucked in as she did, making Ricky tumble into a fit of laughter.

"You look like my goldfish when I was twelve," he howled between laughs, pointing in her general direction. It was a bit hard keeping his finger pointed straight at her when everything was so blurry and in motion.

Alexis stared at him, and for a moment, it may have appeared that she was confused by his words. But within seconds, she was laughing along with him, rolling on the dirty wood floors of the tenements with one hand clutching her stomach as the other did its best to keep the blunt from falling and putting itself out. Something about that whole goldfish analogy or metaphor or _whatever_ (Alexis didn't really go to English class that often anymore) was just hilarious. She'd never noticed what a damn funny guy Ricky Pucino was.

Their laughter successfully hid the heavy thumps made by the boots Peanut Romano wore on his feet as he trekked down the hallway, guided only by crazed laughter and the unmistakable scent of marijuana. He found himself standing in the doorway of Ricky's room which was a lot dirtier and disorganized than usual, Ricky and Alexis themselves lying on the floor laughing like two imbeciles.

"What the fuck are you two doing here?" he shot out, a mixture of outrage and downright fear coating his voice.

The two teenagers on the floor looked up, their laughing faces breaking out into excited and welcoming ones.

"Look who it is!" Alexis cheered, pushing herself up clumsily. "Happy fuckin' new year, Larry! C'mere gimme a hug!"

She opened her arms to him, breaking her hug stance a couple times to take some more drags of the blunt. "Yeah, Romano, come celebrate with us! Happy new year, dude!" Ricky cheered, throwing one arm around Alexis' shoulders and holding the other open to Peanut as if the two were preparing for some sort of group hug. Ricky took the cigarette from Alexis and took a drag himself, making his own goldfish face.

Peanut couldn't do much but just stare incredulously. A wide range of emotions were running through him, though he settled on the easiest one for the given situation; fury. Acting on it, he stepped forward and grasped Alexis' arm, his fingers wrapping all around it. She was getting skinnier and skinnier by the moment, and he was concerned. He yanked her up onto her feet roughly.

"I'll deal with you later," he spat to Ricky, and then, thinking better on it, ripped the weed cigarette from Ricky's fingers and threw it to the ground where he smashed it to bits with his boot. Ignoring Ricky and Alexis' cries of protests, he dragged Alexis behind him to his own tenements room.

" _Why_ did you _do_ that?!" Alexis whined, instantly collapsing onto the old brown sofa that Peanut used as a bed. She stared up at Peanut like a particularly sour four-year-old.

He took a moment to study her. Her green eyes were dull as if someone had flipped off the light switch in them, and sunken in. Her face was thinner; sharper. Her blonde hair was a mess, just a giant mess of frizz to the right side of her face. She looked like a crazy homeless woman dressed up in leather.

"You're high as a kite!" Peanut snapped, and because he couldn't think of anything better to do he yanked the cushion from behind her back. "I haven't seen you since Christmas eve and then you just turn up outta nowhere to get yourself and Pucino wasted?!"

She stared at him, eyes trained on his brown ones, her lower lip jutted out in an angry pout. "Don't be pissed just 'cause I made new friends," she replied, the teasing tone in her voice giving Peanut the slight desire to smack her.

Instead, he rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Alex. I'm pissed 'cause you went and made yourself some new friends, sure. Look, I don't give a rat's ass what you've been up to this past week. But shit, you're one of my best friends. So yeah, when you show up so high you can't walk straight, with more drugs to get another one of our guys high too, you're damn straight I'm gonna do something about it."

He searched her face for any sort of change in emotion, but she remained with the same stubborn glare that she'd been practicing since they were kids. Irritated, Peanut dragged a hand up to his hair, smoothing it down. What the hell was he supposed to do with her?

It would hurt her, but he knew what he had to do. "What, Alex? Is this part of your neverending journey to get Johnny to notice you?" he asked, the words feeling odd on his lips. It was gonna hit her like a truck, but it was the only way he could think of to get through to her.

The reaction on Alexis' face was instantaneous. She crumpled but within a moment had smoothed herself out into the angriest stare Peanut had ever seen her direct towards him. He knew it was working. "It is, isn't it? God, Alex, you're still living with this Romeo and Juliet thing?"

Peanut walked towards a lone dirty window and looked out of it, eyeing the few townspeople who roamed the streets. Probably drunks who'd hobbled out of their tents or shelters to go urinate in public or rob a liquor store in celebration of the new year. He made his way back to Alexis and set his hands on his knees so that he was inches from her face, eye to eye.

"'Cause babe, that was a real shitty play, and six people died."

"Fuck you," she snapped, looking away from him. She wobbled slightly as she did so, and Peanut let out a loud sigh.

"Just lie down, Alex. You look exhausted. I'll go get you a sandwich or a burger or something." He gave her a gentle push on her shoulder, intending for her to lay back down on the sofa, but Alexis' hand flew onto his and threw it off her.

She stood, almost losing her balance, and flipped up her middle finger at him. "I don't need this. I don't need you. Piss off, Romano," she hissed, making her way towards the door.

Peanut followed after, tired of this bullshit. Maybe he could find some sort of alcoholics anonymous group around Bullworth. "Alex, this is stupid. Just come on, get some rest."

He reached out to grab a hold of her wrist, but Alexis whipped around instantly, effectively scratching him on the cheek with her untrimmed fingernails. Peanut stared at her, surprised, three thin red marks on his left cheek. He placed a hand up to them, shocked.

"You ain't my _dad_ ," Alexis whispered, venom dripping off her words, before marching off into the hallway.


End file.
